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Common bird indicators: helping to track progress towards the 2010 target

Andy Hay/RSPB Images
Lapwings are declining mainly as a result of agricultural intensification
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Bird populations are a good indicator of overall environmental sustainability. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) have developed a biodiversity indicator based on he population trends of representative species of 'common' (not globally threatened) birds.

  • Common bird indicators show the average trends in abundance of a selected set of species. They are especially useful in showing change in the overall condition of ecosystems, which is difficult and expensive to measure directly.
  • Using birds has many advantages: excellent data, based on the volunteer efforts of skilled birdwatchers; a stable taxonomy; a thorough knowledge of ecology and behaviour; meaningful responses to environmental change, and great resonance and symbolic value with the public and decision-makers.
  • Bird populations integrate a set of environmental changes, because they are mobile and often wide-ranging. Bird numbers also respond more slowly than those of smaller organisms, and at a larger spatial scale.
  • Strengths of common bird indicators include their statistical robustness, relative simplicity, cost-effectiveness and ease of update.
  • Common bird indicators can help measure progress towards reducing the rate of biodiversity loss at the national, regional and global levels.

NATIONAL: The UK common bird indicator

  • This indicator is based on population trends of common breeding birds.
  • It is one of the UK Government's 15 headline indicators of the sustainability of lifestyles in the UK.
  • The UK common bird indicator shows large declines in common woodland and especially farmland birds since 1970.
  • The UK Government has adopted a formal commitment to "reverse the long-term decline in the number of farmland birds by 2020".
  • UK land-use policy is now coupling agricultural production with the needs of maintaining and restoring biodiversity.

The UK common bird indicator

The UK common bird indicator


REGIONAL: The Pan-European common bird indicator

  • This indicator shows average trends in population sizes of a suite of common breeding birds across 18 European countries.
  • It is based on national annual breeding bird surveys conducted by skilled volunteers.
  • It shows that common farmland birds in Europe have declined steeply over the last two decades, common woodland birds have declined moderately, whilst common generalist species have increased.
  • The European Union has adopted the farmland bird index as a “long-list structural indicator” for Europe.

    The Pan-European common bird indicator

    The Pan-European common bird indicator


    GLOBAL: Scaling up common bird indicators

    • Population trends of common breeding birds can feed through to, and help improve, global indicators based on species' population trends, such as the Living Planet Index.
    • Methods used in Europe can readily be applied in other regions with similar data sets, such as North America and Australia.
    • Indicators are under development for species groups that have been counted in many countries for many years, such as waterbirds (led by Wetlands International), seabirds and birds of prey.
    • Thousands of birdwatchers around the world make bird lists, which can provide a reliable index of species abundance changes. Such lists are now being captured through web-based systems in a number of countries - see www.worldbirds.org

    Next Page » Are birds good indicators?


  • In this Section

    Document title and/or headline

    Monitoring & Indicators

    Red List Index

    IBA Indices

    Common bird indicators

    Birds as indicators

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