The state of breeding birds in Greece: trends, threats, and implications for conservation

Abstract

Summary Birds are suffering from steep population declines on a global scale and they are one of the few taxonomic groups for which these declines are well documented by long-term monitoring data. This study provides a synthesis of the status of the breeding birds of Greece. To this aim, we retrieved population size estimates from six sources spanning 22 years (1992–2014) and calculated species’ trends in Greece. Using the IUCN Red List assessments for each species we assessed whether ecological traits including habitat and diet preferences were associated with species’ trends and conservation status in Europe and determined major threats affecting birds in Greece. Moreover, we assessed the importance of Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in terms of declining trigger species. Results showed that almost one fifth of the breeding birds in Greece have declining populations. Raptors were found to be the most threatened group of birds whereas the highest declines by dietary group were observed in scavengers, with 60% of species showing a decreasing trend. The most common threats were those that cause habitat alteration and degradation as well as more direct effects such as poisoning. Our results suggest that restoration of habitat and ecosystem functions along with the management of protected areas and improvement of legislation should be the main conservation actions undertaken and pinpointed the IBAs where they should be prioritized for implementation. Finally, further research, especially on specific drivers of population change, along with further examination of current and past population trends, will increase the power and accuracy of future regional Red List assessments especially concerning the breeding species for which the country bears the greatest responsibility.

European Turtle Dove Population Trend in Greece Using Hunting Statistics of the Past 16-Year Period as Indices

“…Similar findings are reported in [2], and [45] who have found that both the short-and the long-term population trend of the species is stable in Greece. A recent study for 246 breeding birds in Greece finds an increasing trend for the species in Greece, similar to our finding, as indicated by the hunting sustainability index [46].…”

Species Traits Drive Long-Term Population Trends of Common Breeding Birds in Northern Italy

“…The European Goldfinch and the European Greenfinch, which showed strong decreasing trends, are listed as “near threatened”. Although our results are at regional scale, they can provide valuable information for updating local, national and continental Red Lists [ 39 ].…”

“…Although species population trends are not directly informative on drivers of population changes [ 21 ], observing a common trend among species with similar ecological or life history traits can provide the foundation to test specific hypotheses about the drivers of the observed population dynamics [ 22 ]. Despite the arising attention of a trait-based approach in community ecology [ 15 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ] and population ecology [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ], only in the last few years researchers have started to explore the link between traits and population trends in avifauna over long time periods, highlighting the existence of different patterns among distinct functional groups [ 22 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ].…”

Avian Diversity and Abundance in Relation to Season, Livestock Presence and Vegetation Cover in a Mediterranean Coastal Wetland

“…As such it is of special importance, especially considering the fact that since 1980, Eurasian skylark populations have suffered a moderate decline (up to 50%) in Europe ( (Keller et al 2020;PECBMS database 2021), as well as in England since the mid-1970s (Browne et al 2000). On the contrary, the Eurasian skylark's population size in Greece has increased by 96.5% between 1992 and 2014 (Vavylis et al 2020).…”

“…Declines in wet grasslands in Britain had been steeper than other breeding habitats (Wilson & Vickery 2005). In Greece, its population size has been increasing by an average of 8.3% per year from 1992 to 2014 (Vavylis et al 2020). The Corn bunting has also suffered severe population declines and losses in distribution in Europe mostly due to various kinds of changes in agricultural practices (Keller et al 2020).…”