Spring Alive Spring is coming! Zoom In

Spring is coming!

01-02-2010

BirdLife International has once again launched its annual Spring Alive campaign to celebrate the miracle of bird migration. Now in its fifth year, the campaign gets European children aged between 8 and 12 years old to send in their first sightings of four species of bird, White Stork Ciconia ciconia, Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica, Common Swift Apus apus and Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus, via the Spring Alive website.

Last year the campaign collected nearly 94,000 observations and this year, for the first time, Spring Alive will also be collecting sightings in Africa. 

“Following childrens’ sightings of these species from their non-breeding to their breeding grounds will highlight how they connect people, countries and continents”, said Magdalena Chrzanowska, the European Coordinator of Spring Alive.

“Through encouraging children, their parents and teachers to contribute to the campaign with their bird observations, we also want to focus attention on the declines of many of our most familiar species.”

“Following childrens’ sightings of these species will highlight how they connect people, countries and continents” —Magdalena Chrzanowska, European Coordinator of Spring Alive

Over 40% of long-distance migrants in the African-Eurasian flyway have shown signs of decline over the last three decades. Of these 10% are classified by BirdLife as Globally Threatened or Near Threatened. Many of these birds are continuing to disappear. The nature of the threats means that bird conservation can only be achieved by addressing the underlying causes of environmental degradation such as unsustainable agricultural and forestry policies, human dependency on fossil fuels, and poverty. 

BirdLife International’s Flyways programme is extremely well placed to undertake action for migratory birds. BirdLife Partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide, and work together to raise awareness about migratory birds and implement conservation projects. International collaboration is the only way to conserve migratory birds as they pass along their flyways.

To take part in this year’s Spring Alive, all you need to do is to register your first sightings of any of the four species at www.springalive.net 

More on BirdLife's Flyways Programme here.

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