Long-term and large-scale multispecies dataset tracking population changes of common European breeding birds.

Around fifteen thousand fieldworkers annually count breeding birds using standardized protocols in 28 European countries. The observations are collected by using country-specific and standardized protocols, validated, summarized and finally used for the production of continent-wide annual and long-term indices of population size changes of 170 species. Here, we present the database and provide a detailed summary of the methodology used for fieldwork and calculation of the relative population size change estimates. We also provide a brief overview of how the data are used in research, conservation and policy. We believe this unique database, based on decades of bird monitoring alongside the comprehensive summary of its methodology, will facilitate and encourage further use of the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme results.

Covariation in population trends and demography reveals targets for conservation action.

Wildlife conservation policies directed at common and widespread, but declining, species are difficult to design and implement effectively, as multiple environmental changes are likely to contribute to population declines. Conservation actions ultimately aim to influence demographic rates, but targeting actions towards feasible improvements in these is challenging in widespread species with ranges that encompass a wide range of environmental conditions. Across Europe, sharp declines in the abundance of migratory landbirds have driven international calls for action, but actions that could feasibly contribute to population recovery have yet to be identified. Targeted actions to improve conditions on poor-quality sites could be an effective approach, but only if local conditions consistently influence local demography and hence population trends. Using long-term measures of abundance and demography of breeding birds at survey sites across Europe, we show that co-occurring species with differing migration behaviours have similar directions of local population trends and magnitudes of productivity, but not survival rates. Targeted actions to boost local productivity within Europe, alongside large-scale (non-targeted) environmental protection across non-breeding ranges, could therefore help address the urgent need to halt migrant landbird declines. Such demographic routes to recovery are likely to be increasingly needed to address global wildlife declines.

Costs of compensation: effect of early life conditions and reproduction on flight performance in zebra finches.

Conditions experienced in early life have been shown to affect the development or programming of physiological processes. While animals may recover from earlier periods of adversity, this process can carry long-term costs. Such long-term effects are likely to be most evident when individuals are placed in demanding situations that require high performance. Escape flight speed in passerine birds is crucial to predator evasion and requires very rapid take-off. Here, we examine whether the ability to maintain escape flight performance during the immediate post-breeding period is influenced by conditions in early life. We manipulated the early life conditions experienced by zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) by rearing them on either low or high quality food through the growth period, or by changing conditions halfway through the nestling period, moving from high to low or vice versa. While there was no difference amongst the treatment groups in body size attained by adulthood, amongst the birds that experienced low quality food, the body size of those that were switched to a high quality diet halfway through the nestling growth period recovered faster than those that had low quality food until fledging. We found no differences amongst the dietary groups in flight performance at adulthood prior to breeding, and all groups showed a decline in average escape flight performance over the breeding period. However, the magnitude of the post-breeding decline in flight performance for a given level of reproductive output was significantly greater for those females that had experienced a switch from a low to a high quality diet during the nestling phase. These results suggest that this diet-induced rapid recovery of body size, which may have immediate competitive advantages, nonetheless carries locomotory costs in later life manifest in the capacity to sustain the high performance escape response during the post-reproductive recovery phase.