Under the slogan “Birds connect our world”, this year it is intended to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the natural cycles that are essential for the survival and well-being of migratory birds
Today we join the celebration of World Migratory Bird Day, which takes place twice a year (on the second Saturday of May and October) to raise awareness about the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats, highlight their ecological importance and raise awareness of the threats they face.
Under the slogan “Birds connect our world”, this year it is intended to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of the ecosystems that support the natural cycles that are essential for the survival and well-being of migratory birds. These species are part of our shared natural heritage and depend on a network of spaces along their migratory routes to reproduce, feed, rest and hibernate.
Migratory species move around the world connecting countries, people and continents through their migration routes, which can only be achieved when they can access the different sites and habitats they depend on on their journey. These pathways transcend national borders, national plans, and the conservation priorities of any country.
The ecological connectivity of these sites is critical to their survival. The loss or degradation of a critical site for migratory birds can lead to defragmentation that can have a devastating effect on populations. Other threats they face are poisoning, change in land use, collisions with artificial objects or climate change, which is having a great impact on the migratory phenomenon.
The Iberian Peninsula is the most important migratory corridor in all of Western Europe. Millions of birds cross it a couple of times a year on their migrations. The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the most important points: an average of 225,000 black kites, 156,000 white storks, 35,000 booted eagles, 60,000 European honey buzzards, 20,000 short-toed eagles, 3,000 black storks and 2,500 Egyptian vultures are observed every autumn crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to their wintering grounds in Africa.
From the Biodiversity Foundation, aware for years of the importance of the conservation of migratory species within the framework of global biodiversity, we have supported more than 20 projects related to migratory birds, and allocated nearly one million euros to different initiatives. For this reason, last year we collaborated with the Migres Foundation in the development of MIGDATA, a technological project thanks to which a database has been created with half a million biological records and more than 20 million data on geophysical variables. In addition, a system has been put in place to consult the last 20 years of bird monitoring data in the Strait of Gibraltar, where, between 1999 and 2018, almost 10 million gliding birds and about 1.5 million seabirds have been counted.
We have also been supporting the Global Nature Foundation’s LIFE Paludicola for a few years, which aims to halt the decline in the populations of aquatic warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) and improve the conservation status of this passerine bird, the most endangered in continental Europe and of community interest. The wetlands of the Iberian Peninsula are a key element for their conservation, and the project aims to increase the surface area of the habitats that the species uses during its migrations through Spain.
Currently, SEO/BirdLife also has our support in SOS nests, where effective solutions are sought to one of the main threats to some of the wild species that inhabit urban environments: the destruction of nests and the disappearance of breeding sites. The affected birds are mostly migratory, which have been experiencing a progressive decline in their populations in recent years.
