Woodland birds

Den Vögeln macht im Landwirtschaftsgebiet Verschiedenes zu schaffen. Die Mechanisierung und die Flurbereinigungen führen zu einer eintönigeren Landschaft. Für Vögel wichtige Lebensräume wie Hecken wurden beseitigt. Der Einsatz von Dünger und Pflanzenschutzmitteln wirkte sich zudem auf das Nahrungsangebot aus; die Zahl der Insekten ging zurück. Wie sich diese Veränderungen auf den Vogelbestand auswirken, sieht man typischerweise beim Wiedehopf. Noch in den 1950er Jahren war der Upupa epops im Mittelland weit verbreitet. Auch im Jura und in den Alpen war der Vogel mit dem auffälligen Kopfschmuck anzutreffen. In den 1970er Jahren brütete er nur noch regional, im Mittelland verzeichnete man einige einzelne Paare. In den 1990er Jahren dann spürten Vogelkenner lediglich lokale und sporadische Bruten auf.

The population of the only bird that lives solely in Florida, the Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), is declining at a rate that threatens its survival, according to a federal wildlife report. The report by Raoul Boughton and Reed Bowman at Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid, was the result of the first Florida scrub-jay survey on public and private conservation lands in nearly two decades. The Florida scrub-jay has been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act since 1987 because the species' population has declined by about 90 percent since European settlement. An earlier survey showed Florida scrub-jays had already disappeared from 10 of the 39 Florida counties in which they had existed as recently as the 1980s, and the overall population had declined by 50 percent since the 1980s. The Florida Scrub-Jay was officially listed as a threatened state species by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in 1975 and it was listed as a threatened federal species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was once found across the swampy forests of the south-eastern states. Now, sightings of the bird are hotly debated. One team, lead by Nicholas Gotelli at the University of Vermont, studied the historical decline in specimens taken by museums and private collectors. They also looked at areas where bird life has been exhaustively sampled. Dr Gotelli reckons the odds of finding the ivory-billed woodpecker alive are less than 1 in 15,625. Another group, led by Andrew Solow of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, used a different statistical approach, but also concluded that the bird is likely to be extinct. John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and one of the leading figures in the search for the woodpecker, agrees there is a high probability that the bird is gone. But he says that, faced with the evidence of sightings, he felt compelled to search for the bird. He cautions that other birds have been assumed to be extinct, only to be rediscovered later.

Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) numbers in Iowa have dropped to an all-time low. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the state's pheasant population has fallen to an average of seven birds counted for each 30 mile route driven. That's down from 11 birds per route in 2010. They say the drop in pheasant numbers isn't restricted to Iowa. Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska also have seen decreases in pheasant numbers.

THE populations of two once-abundant Welsh woodland bird species have fallen so dramatically they are now on an RSPB rare bird watch list, it has been announced. Numbers of the lesser spotted woodpecker Dendrocopos minor and willow tit Parus montanus have plummeted since the 1970s. According to the RSPB, willow tits have fallen in number by a huge 91% and the lesser spotted woodpecker – the smallest of the UK’s woodpeckers – has dropped by 76%.

In Mitteleuropa kommen ca. 100 ver­schiedene Ameisenarten vor; einige Ar­ten finden wir ausschließlich in Waldre­gionen - die in den auffälligen Hügelne­stern lebenden Waldameisen. Der Bestands­rückgang, in den letzten 40 Jahren etwa 50%, hat vielfältige Ursachen: Beschädigungen der Nesthügel durch unvernünftige Wald­besucher, unvorsichtiges Holzrücken, Rodungen, Baumaßnahmen aller Art, Absammeln der Ameisenpuppen, Grund­wasserrückgang, Anwendung von Insek­tiziden, Einsatz staubförmiger Dünge­mittel im Wald während der Vegetations­zeit. Waldameisen und deren Brut sind eine wichtige Nahrungsquelle für verschiede­ne Waldbewohner: Kleinvögel, versch. Spechtarten und Waldhühner wie z.B. Auerhuhn Tetrao urogallus und Haselhuhn Tetrastes bonasia, de­ren Kücken während der ersten 4 Lebenswochen auf Ameisenpuppen und Amei­sen angewiesen sind.

Recent figures, from the annual Breeding Birds Survey carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology, show that between 1995 and 2009, the turtle dove Streptopelia turtur dropped in numbers by 74 per cent, the wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix by 63 per cent and the nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos by 60 per cent. The whinchat Saxicola rubetra and the yellow wagtail Motacilla flava both declined by 55 per cent, the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca by 51 per cent, the cuckoo Cuculus canorus by 48 per cent and the spotted flycatcher Muscicapa striata by 47 per cent. "These losses are unsustainable, and if left unchecked will put these species in danger of being wiped out across large parts of the UK", said Graham Madge of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.