Settlement birds

Spatzen (Passer domesticus) gehörten einst zu den häufigsten Stadtvögeln überhaupt. Doch wenn man sich heute in Bremens Straßen und Gärten umsieht, erblickt man kaum noch einen der kleinen braunen Vögel. Die Zahl der Spatzen hat in ganz Deutschland in den vergangenen 25 Jahren so stark abgenommen, dass sie mittlerweile auf der Vorwarnstufe der Roten Liste stehen. In den Stadtstaaten ist der Rückgang am stärksten. Anfang bis Mitte des letzten Jahrhunderts galt der Spatz in vielen deutschen Städten als Plage. "Er war der freche Stadtvogel, der den Leuten auch gern mal was vom Teller pickte", sagt Sönke Hofmann, Geschäftsführer des Naturschutzbund (Nabu) Bremen. Spatzen saßen auf jedem Dach und in jeder Hecke. Wenn Gartenbesitzer ein Futterhäuschen aufhängten, bestückten sie es mit Körnern, die für Spatzen ungenießbar waren. Denn wer beobachtet schon gern Vögel, die es an jeder Straßenecke zuhauf gibt? "Man wollte lieber die besonderen Vögel anlocken", so Hofmann. Heute hingegen kann man den Spatz zu eben diesen besonderen Vögeln zählen.

Staniel is the old English word for the kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the hovering falcon. Staniel is long forgotten now; our modern English name for the bird comes from the French crécerelle, and I was put in mind of all this recently on a weekend trip to Normandy, where I was delighted to find kestrels hovering all over the place, not least above motorway verges: on a 50-mile stretch of the A28 which runs between Alençon and Rouen, I counted 18 of them. Twenty years ago, this was also a typical sight on the M1, M4 and M6, so much so that the kestrel became nicknamed the motorway falcon; the long, undisturbed grass verges, even with heavy traffic thundering past, had turned out to be perfect hunting grounds for the voles and mice on which kestrels feed. But today it would be a rare occurrence indeed to spot 18 kestrels in 50 miles of the M1, for the bird is increasingly in trouble in Britain, with its numbers dropping by 32 per cent in the years between 1995 and 2010, and a staggering 36 per cent decline just between 2008 and 2009. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when birds of prey such as peregrine falcons and buzzards were struggling because of pesticide poisoning and persecution, kestrels were flourishing; but now the situation is reversed, and they are the most threatened of our common raptors.

Auch in diesem Frühjahr rief der NABU wieder zur Stunde der Gartenvögel auf, bei der Gartenbesitzer und Hobbyornithologen Vogelbeobachtungen melden konnten. Dabei wurden fast 1 Mio Vogelsichtungen gemeldet. Der Mauersegler (Apus apus) verliert dabei im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 5%. Da es bei Sichtungen ja logischerweise immer mal zu Schwankungen und Fehlbestimmungen kommt, sieht der Nabu den Bestand der Mauersegler im Vergleich zum Vorjahr als stabil an. Schaut man aber in der Statistik ein paar Jahr zurück, so hat der Mauersegler in Deutschland seit dem Jahr 2007 innerhalb von nur 5 Jahren rund 30% seines Bestandes eingebüßt.

We analyzed migration counts of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) at 20 autumn migration hawkwatch sites throughout North America to estimate population trends. In eastern North America, autumn counts showed a pattern of significant declines along the Atlantic Coast and eastern Appalachian Mountains, stable numbers in the eastern Great Lakes region, and a significant increase in the western Great Lakes region from 1974 to 2004. From 1994 to 2004, significant declines occurred at most hawkwatch sites in eastern North America, with nonsignificant declines recorded in the western Great Lakes, northeastern Quebec, and Florida. In western North America, three counts from the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain regions that spanned the mid-1980s to 2005 showed mixed long-term trends. From 1995 to 2005, counts decreased significantly at three and nonsignificantly at two of six western hawkwatch sites active throughout the period. These results suggest population declines across much of interior western North America and the Pacific Northwest; however, kestrel counts remained comparatively stable since the mid-1980s in the southern Rocky Mountains. Migration counts along the Gulf of Mexico were variable from 1995 to 2005, with no strong indication of population changes in this region. The overall pattern of migration counts suggests that kestrel populations have undergone a long-term decline in northeastern North America and more recent declines in the midwestern and western regions of the continent.

The issue of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) disappearing from big cities, including Delhi, has been a cause of concern for environmentalist and wildlife lovers for quite a while now.Though there is no official data on the number of sparrows left in India, the population of the small birds has declined the world over. As part of a campaign to save the common house sparrow, Delhi government recently declared it the State Bird. Recognising the decline in the number of sparrows in the City, the Delhi Government accorded this status to common bird along with launching a campaign ‘Rise for the Sparrows’ to connect people from all walks of life to save this humble, unassuming species. The founder of Nature Forever Society, Mohammed Dilawar, who has been working specifically on this campaign for over a year and around seven years for increasing their numbers in general, says declaring house sparrow as the state bird will send out a significant message among both - the special and the common man. It was high time we did it. Generally, some rare bird is given this status but by declaring a common bird a State Bird will attract everybody’s attention towards the issue,” he says.

Vogelexperten des NABU haben erstmals berechnet, wie sich das Usutu-Virus in Deutschland auf den Amselbestand ausgewirkt hat. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Daten seit dem Jahr 2006 aus Deutschlands größten Vogelzählaktionen "Stunde der Gartenvögel" und "Stunde der Wintervögel" ausgewertet. Danach fielen dem Virus im vergangenen Jahr rund 300.000 Amseln (Turdus merula) zum Opfer. "Die Zahlen zeigen, dass das Risiko für Amseln in bestimmten Regionen groß, aber bundesweit nicht bestandsgefährdend ist", sagte NABU-Bundesgeschäftsführer Leif Miller. Bei den NABU-Vogelzählaktionen, die jährlich im Januar und Mai stattfinden, gehen jeweils Vogelerfassungen aus mehr als 30.000 Gärten und Parks ein.

The blackbird Turdus merula is at risk of disappearing from London gardens after suffering a “worrying” decline in numbers. The survey shows that although blackbirds are still found in all London boroughs, the average number seen in gardens has fallen from 1.83 three years ago to 1.56 now — a 15 per cent drop. “Something is happening to London’s environment that means birds — such as house sparrows Passer domesticus, starlings Sturnus vulgaris, swifts Apus apus and now blackbirds — can no longer maintain their numbers here,” Tim Webb, a spokesman for RSPB London, said. “Research has shown London is suffering from a lack of insects, caterpillars and edible seed for wildlife. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but those bugs and grasses are fine dining for many of our common birds and help support frogs, bees and bats too.”

The swifts are going now from our village. Perhaps we should pause to enjoy them one last time before the final few depart. The miracle of swifts, perhaps the miracle of all life, is made more apparent if you think of them not as birds, but as insects. For swifts are made from nothing but tiny invertebrates floating in the ether. A flock of 30 and everything about them — that noise, those scintillating movements, their feathers, those air-filled bones as light as grass — is a distillation of billions of insects. And when I say billions, I mean it. A single mouthful of food passed from an adult swift to its chick can contain 300 insects. Alas, the miracle of swifts is fading. In the past decade they've declined in Britain by 40%. Just as we might see the swifts' sky-trawl as composed of nothing but insects, we should recall that our own dance consumes almost every other living thing around us.