BBS population trends are published annually for 61 bird species in Scotland, and the latest results show that 2012 was a particularly bad year for a number of migrant birds, including Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) and Swift (Apus apus). The latest figures from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) show that numbers of Swifts fell by 42% in Scotland between 2011 and 2012. For Swifts, the latest drop in numbers is the third annual decline in a row, and follows a 57% decline in Scotland since the mid-1990s. Linnets (Carduelis cannabina), which live on farmland, also did badly in 2012, with the population declining by nearly 50% between 2011 and 2012, taking the numbers of this small finch to their lowest level in Scotland since the survey began in 1994.
Source: BTO, July 2013
http://www.bto.org/news-events/press-releases/swift-screams-silenced-sc…
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