Trends and Indicators

The main project goal is to use common birds as indicators of the general state of nature using scientific data on changes in European breeding populations.

Since January 2006, the production of European bird species trends and indicators has been supported by the European Commission.

Common bird species indices and trends

PECBMS combines national species indices in supra-national indices for individual species for Europe, the EU, and their regions (New and Old EU, West, South, North, and Central & East Europe). All indices are annually updated, but only European species indices and trends are published – see the latest 2023 update. We did not update the species indices and trends in 2020.

Common bird indicators (multi-species composite indices)

PECBMS produces indicators for Europe, the EU, and their regions (New and Old EU, and West, South, North, and Central & East Europe) for common farmland, common forest, and all common birds. All indicators are annually updated and published – see the latest 2023 update.

National indicators

Many European bird monitoring schemes produce their own national wild bird indicators. Some of them are also used as official indicators in the country. See the overview of the production of national common bird indicators and their use in Europe.