Loss of breeding waders from key lowland grassland sites in Northern Ireland

Between the mid-1980s and 2018–2019, Northern Ireland’s lowland wet grasslands saw a 73% decline in their breeding wader populations, from 1,296 to 354 pairs across 74 surveyed sites.

Transatlantic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wild birds from Europe to North America in 2021

Highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected in poultry and a free-living gull in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 2021, raising concerns about the potential for a new outbreak and questions ...

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Urban and coastal breeding lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) segregate by foraging habitat

A collaboration between BTO, Natural England and University of Exeter researchers has used GPS-tracking technology to compare the movements and habitat use of Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding at ...

Breeding ground temperature rises, more than habitat change, are associated with spatially variable population trends in two ...

BTO research has examined the effects of climate change and habitat loss on the population trends of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. These closely related songbirds, tricky to distinguish by eye, share ...

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Relative roles of static and dynamic abiotic conditions as drivers of foraging behaviour in breeding Sandwich Terns

New research involving BTO used GPS tagging to examine Sandwich Tern foraging behaviour during the breeding season. Like other seabirds, Sandwich Terns are so-called ‘central place foragers’ while ...

A 30,000-km journey by Apus apus pekinensis tracks arid lands between northern China and south-western Africa

The Swift is widely distributed with a cross-continental breeding range spanning Europe and large parts of Asia and north Africa. Until recently, Swift migration research has focused on populations ...

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The Breeding Bird Survey 2021

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