
Press release
The illustrators that have decided to support EBBA2 by providing bird illustrations:
José Acosta, Spain https://www.instagram.com/jacostanature
Paulo Alves, Portugal https://www.facebook.com/Paulo-Alves-Wildlife-Art-and-Illustration-614691228648008/
Niels Peter Andreasen, Denmark www.npa-ulvshale.dk
Ute Bartels, Germany http://www.utebartels.de/
Tora Benzeyen, Turkey
Bálint Bombay, Hungary https://www.facebook.com/Bombay-B%C3%A1lint-term%C3%A9szetfestm%C3%A9nyek-illusztr%C3%A1ci%C3%B3k-1764418760487062/
Marco Bonifacino, Italy
Marcus Burkhardt, Germany www.natural-and-history-art.de
Tomasz Cofta, Poland
Jaime de la Torre Naharro, Spain
Nick Derry, France/UK http://nickderry.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3976197
Adam Dmoch, Poland
Paschalis Dougalis, Germany/Greece http://www.dougalis-art.com/
Martí Franch, Spain http://dibuixosnatura.blogspot.com
Francisco José Hernández, Spain http://www.avestrazos.com/
Diana Höhlig, Germany http://www.wild-glance.de/
Jan Hošek, Czech Republic http://www.gepartpictures.com/p/ilustrace.html
Jean Chevallier, France https://www.jeanchevallier.fr/
Hans Christoph Kappel, Germany www.wildlife-illustrated.de/
David Khaydarov, Russia
Dawid Kilon , Poland
Alena Klvaňová, Czech republic
Eugeny Koblik, Russia
Szabolcs Kókay, Hungary http://www.kokay.hu/
Juho Könönen, Finland https://www.facebook.com/juhokononenpainter/
Jacques Laesser, Switzerland
Corinna Langebrake, Germany https://feather-art.jimdo.com/
Javier Lazaro Tapia, Spain https://www.behance.net/javierlazaa607
Wolfgang Lissak, Germany
Toni Llobet, Spain http://www.tonillobet.com/en/
Reno Lottmann, Germany www.reno-lottmann.de/
Sorrel Lyall, UK http://sorrellyallwildlife.weebly.com/
Álex Mascarell, Spain
Ron Meier, Germany
Martina Nacházelová, Czech Republic https://www.artstation.com/artist/nachi
Lisa Pannek, Germany http://www.lisapannek.com/
Pavel Procházka, Czech Republic
Paola Ricceri, Switzerland
Bruna Roqué, Spain https://www.instagram.com/pararge_aegeria/
Vadim Ryabitsev, Russia
Christopher Schmidt, Germany http://www.naturillustrationen.de/
Lluís Sogorb, Spain https://www.lluissogorb.com
Axel Emil Thorenfeldt, Norway (Author wishes to thank to Mr. Otgonbayar Baatargal for providing the photo of Siberian Tit)
Robert Vaughan, Ireland https://www.facebook.com/robertvaughanillustrations/
Laurent Willenegger, Switzerland
Dan Zetterström, Sweden
Title page of the Bird Atlas of the Netherlands shows the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), one of the declining species.
Title page of the Swiss Breeding Bird Atlas 2013–2016, published in November, 2018.
The new issue of Bird Census News is out!
The Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus), illustrated by Álex Mascarell
The final workshop of the MAVA project was held on Mount Medvednica in Croatia (photo by M.Kipson)
White storks
One of the 50 shades of steppe in Kalmykia region (photo by Vojtěch Kubelka).
Karia in Greece, photo by Verena Keller
Typical mix of bog, lake and forest in Central Kola (photo by V. Keller)
Swiss landscape (By Simon Koopmann (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Alpine lake in Austria (By Takopix Free Photo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
The amazing landscape of Grammos area, close to Albanian border (photo by Albert Burgas)
By darius_saulenas (Lithuania Nature Uploaded by GiW) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Pilot map of Eurasian Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo)
The venue of the conference at Martin-Luther University in Halle (Saale), Germany (photo by K. Slabeyova)
The new issue of Bird Census News is out. Do not miss out to check the newest articles!
Bird Census News is the Journal of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC). It was first published in 1987. It gradually evolved from a typewritten photocopied leaflet to the present form. Rob Bijlsma (The Netherlands) has been editor from 1987-1992, Anny Anselin (Belgium) is editor since 1993.
The publication of the Journal has been possible by the financial support of SOVON, Beek-Ubbergen (1987-1992) and the Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Brussels (1993-).
Bird Census News reports on the developments in census and atlas work in Europe, from the local to the continental scale, and provides a forum for discussion of methodological issues. A special section is dedicated to book reviews and these topics. And of course, you find in Bird Census News all information on the EBCC and its ongoing projects. The Journal is published two times a year: once in spring and once in autumn with about 40 pages per issue.
Bird Census News will surely interest you! It is meant as a forum for everybody involved in bird census, monitoring and atlas studies, from Iceland to Turkey and from Portugal to Russia and further. We invite you to use it for publishing news on your activities within this field.
Please read more info on BCN here.
Editor of BCN: Anny Anselin
05.8.2016.
Marshes in lowlands (mainly in Eastern Slovakia) are home for rare plant and animal species. Rare bird species, which are breeding here, are for instance Black Terns, White-winged Terns, Ferruginous Duck and other species.
Participants of the workshop (photo by Nadejda Grosu)
River floodplain in Belarus (photo by P. Voříšek)
Sarajevo (photo by Goran Topić)
Mt Suphan (photo by Lider Sinav)
Achladeri Lesbos (photo by Verena Keller)
Montenegro (photo by Mihailo Jovićević)
Participants of the joint workshop of Euronatur and EBCC in Radolfzell (photo by Tibor Mikuška)
Vardenis Mountains in Armenia (photo by Karen Aghababyan)
Steppe habitats in Ukraine (photo by Yuri Andryushchenko)
Nature Park Hutovo blato (photo by Dražen Kotrošan)
Moldavian landscape (photo by Larisa Bogdea)
Common nightingale (photo by Frebeck (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Mikulov castle, photo by Michal Klajban, licenced via Wikimedia Commons
One of the five species from the first data provision, Black-headed gull (photo by Niklaus Zbinden)
EBBA2 is one of European Bird Census Council (EBCC) projects, and as such the news are regularly a part of wider EBCC newsletter. If you wish to receive the newsletter regularly, you can subscribe here.
Previous issues of the EBCC newsletter in the archive
The first comprehensive EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds, or European Ornithological Atlas (EOA) edited by Ward Hagemeijer and Mike Blair, was published in 1997. The atlas is the first major initiative of the EBCC (itself created through the merging of the European Ornithological Atlas Committee and the IBCC), and integrates 25 years of effort by thousands of volunteer field ornithologists, data analysts and writers in more than 40 countries.
The final product is an impressive and voluminous book with more than 900 pages of maps of distribution for 495 European bird species, accompanying text and information on the population size estimates for key countries where it is present. The area covered includes all of Europe, including Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Transcaucasia) although not Turkey or Cyprus. The atlas demonstrates what can be achieved through broadscale international cooperation and has been and remains an essential tool for scientists and conservationists interested in studying the patterns of distribution and abundance of Europes birds.
EBCC Atlas on the Web
EBBA1 is easily accessible to a wide audience, all distribution maps can now also be viewed through the internet. In this recent initiative, the original 50km x 50km basic spatial units in the atlas were converted to Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial references (e.g. latitude, longitude), in order to be able to display the species distribution maps on a website with different backgrounds as explained below.
Because meridians of longitude converge towards the poles the original 50km by 50km grid required modifications to allow squares to drop out as their width declined to less than 40km towards the north. Dealing with these issues in the conversion to GIS was no trivial task and the EBCC is very grateful to SOVON and especially Henk Sierdsema for all his time on this. As in the book, the dots on the map refer to six different categories of information; red = semi-quantitatively confirmed or probable breeding, orange = semi-quantitatively possible breeding, dark purple = qualitatively confirmed or probably breeding, light purple = qualitatively possible breeding, grey = no survey work, no dot = square surveyed but species not recorded. Semi-quantitative (red and orange dots) means that population sizes, in numbers of breeding pairs, for the square have been estimated to the nearest order of magnitude, as indicated by the size of the dots on the map. Not all countries were able to provide this and hence the information is qualitative (all purple and grey dots are the same size). The interactive distribution atlas is currently hosted by SOVON Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology and can be accessed through the link.
Obtaining the atlas data
Associated with the atlas is the underlying database from which the distribution maps are derived. Over the past 10 years, the atlas data has been used by a wide variety of researchers and conservationists for purposes ranging from estimating hotspots of species occurrence to predicting the effects of climate change. Use of the data is administered via the EBCC Executive Committee and the data extraction and handling is currently done by staff at SOVON in the Netherlands or the BTO in the UK, according to agreed rules. There are countless possibilities for using this valuable dataset, and those interested could directly access the data set from GBIF using this link. We strongly encourage contacting the EBCC Chair EBCC-chairman for further discussion or collaboration regarding the use and analyses of Atlas data.
Distribution maps.
There are three types of maps showing the distribution during the EBBA2 period: 50-km abundance maps, 50-km breeding evidence maps, and 10-km modelled maps.
Abundance map. Shows the abundance estimate for each 50-km square (dots). Grey dots denote squares where the species bred but no abundance information was provided.
Breeding evidence map. Shows the highest breeding category reported for each 50-km square (dots). Grey dots denote squares where the species bred but no atlas code was provided.
Modelled map. Shows the modelled probability of occurrence for each 10-km square within the distribution range of the species.
Change map. The change map compares the occurrence of species in EBBA1 and EBBA2 summarised as gains (blue), losses (orange) and no change (grey). In some squares, gains and losses may not reflect a real change in distribution but are due to differences in survey effort between EBBA1 and EBBA2. These squares are shown in lighter colours. The change map only includes areas well covered in both atlases.
Eurasian osytercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) taken in the 39UUB2 square (photo by G. Isakov)
The discussion on the EBBA2 development and the EBCC business. (photo by Martin Kupka)
All participants of two day workshop and training in Serbia (photo by Petr Voříšek)
One of the most important tasks in our work for EBBA2 is a support of fieldwork in the countries where the number of fieldworkers is limited.
Apart from the training in Ukraine, which is going to take place on 16-19 April, 2015, there is another field training planned for the volunteers in Serbia. It will take place during the weekend on 25-26 April, 2015.
There are about 30 Serbians who are eager to learn atlas methods of data collection in the field. Most of the trainers will arrive from The Czech Society for Ornithology in Prague.
The training is organized in the collaboration with Dimitrije Radisic, EBBA2 national coordinator in Serbia.
The meeting of EBCC board and EBBA2 steering comittee will take place in Kiiv, in Ukraine between 16 and 19 April 2015.
Thursday 16 April and Friday 17 April will be allocated to the meetings. The meetings will be followed by training of Ukrainian fieldworkers during the weekend 18 and 19 April.
The aim of the training will be to give instructions about atlas work in the field to Ukrainian ornithologist who will then share their experience with the other fieldworkers working for EBBA2 in the other areas of Ukraine.
The EuroBird Portal is a project of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) developed through a partnership that currently comprises 29 institutions from 21 diferent European countries. In order to make best use of the data gathered by online portals across Europe, there is a need to establish and maintain a common database. Data sources are very scattered, and several portals have limited access or are available only in the native languages of their host countries. Given the diversity of initiatives and the well established nature of some of them, any attempt to favour only one of the systems or to create a new common one would be both undesirable and impractical. We therefore aim to create a common data repository that will hold data from each of the existing systems. This will contain the minimum aggregated information required to realise the full potential for large scale spatiotemporal analyses of such data and for other research and applied uses that are appropriately undertaken at a European scale.
The purpose of EBP is to establish a European data repository based on aggregated data from online bird recording portals from across Europe with the following major objectives:
BirdTrack is a project, through a partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, Birdwatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and the Welsh Ornithological Society, that looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. BirdTrack provides facilities for observers to store and manage their own personal records as well as using these to support species conservation at local, regional, national and international scales.
You can enter your daily observations on a simple-to-use web page or via the free App for iPhone and Android devices. Complete lists of birds (all species seen and heard) are prefered because the proportion of lists with a given species provides a good measure of frequency of occurrence that can be used for population monitoring.
The ornitho portal was developed by Biolovision s.a.r.l. in collaboration with ornithological institutes in several European countries. They are used as platforms for collecting bird observations in the following countries (as to May 2015):
Switzerland: ornitho.ch
Austria: ornitho.at
Italy: ornitho.it
Germany: ornitho.de
Luxemburg: ornitho.lu
Poland: ornitho.pl
Spain: available for Catalonia: ornitho.cat and Basque Country: ornitho.eus
France: different portals, links see http://www.ornitho.fr/
The data of Observation.org is public. Observation.org wants to show the biodiversity of the world.
Observation.org’s goal is to cover all species groups. It uses universal species names and codes to share data with other organisations.To support the exchange of information Observation.org allows the download of all species lists.
Observation.org is part of Waarneming.nl, an independent workgroup within the dutch stichting Natuurinformatie, by which continuation is assured.
This overview presents the information on national breeding bird atlases in European countries as obtained in initial stage of EBBA2 project. National atlases are included only, with exception of countries where atlases have been traditionally organised at regional level. On the other hand, some atlases can include more countries (e.g. UK and Ireland). The overview has been updated according to information available to EBBA2 coordination team and will be updated regularly. We will appreciate any additions or corrections.