Long-term population declines in Danish trans-Saharan migrant birds

Capsule Long-distance migrant birds show less favourable trends than sedentary/short-distance species.

Aims To use breeding bird surveys to contrast population trends amongst common species according to their migration pattern.

Methods Changes in abundance of 62 Danish breeding sedentary, short-distance (Europe/North Africa) or long-distance (trans-Saharan) migrants were described by fitting log linear regression models to point-count census data gathered during 1976–2005.

Results Trans-Saharan migrants declined by 1.3% per annum during this period, while short-distance migrants and sedentary species increased by 1.4% and 1.0% per annum, respectively. There were no significant decadal declines amongst species using different summer breeding habitats, except for wetlands, and there was no consistent variation in trends associated with wintering regions or habitats or diet.

Conclusions More information is urgently needed on diet, feeding ecology, habitat requirements, winter distribution and intra-African movements of the commoner European summer visitors to identify causes of the declines and highlight when in the annual cycle detrimental effects occur. Studies linking individuals on their breeding, staging and wintering grounds are especially needed. Danish trends resemble those from elsewhere in Europe, confirming that restoration to favourable conservation status requires inter-continental action to meet European and global targets to reduce or halt biodiversity loss.