Landscape, cropping and field boundary influences on bird abundance

Farmland birds have declined in recent decades because of agricultural intensification, involving changes in cropping patterns, loss and deterioration of hedgerows and landscape simplification. Management to enhance farmland bird populations could aim to influence any of these, but which set of factors is the most important? A new study by the BTO and the University of Cambridge has investigated this question.

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The Nightingale in Britain: status, ecology and conservation needs

Population density but not stability can be predicted from species distribution models

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Modelled sensitivity of avian collision rate at wind turbines varies with number of hours of flight activity input data

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Seabird foraging ranges as a preliminary tool for identifying candidate Marine Protected Areas

The UK government is committed to establishing an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to manage and conserve marine ecosystems. Seabirds are vital to such ecosystems, but until now these species have received little protection at sea. This is partly because there is scant information available on the oceanic regions they use at the different stages of their lifecycle. A new study led by the BTO, in partnership with the RSPB and Birdlife International, has sought to address this by bringing together work on how far UK-breeding seabirds travel from their colonies (typically in search of food for themselves or their chicks) during the breeding season.

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