Richard D. Gregory

***New** Latest wild bird trends in Europe: Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) indicators 1980–2024. Data = 168 bird species, 30 countries⬇️ @rspb.bsky.social @birdlifeeurope.bsky.social @ebcc.info 🐦@rspbscience.bsky.social pecbms.info/european-wil... pecbms.info/trends-and-i...

Last chance to apply to be our next Bird Atlas Organiser ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs This is an exciting career opportunity that comes around just once every 20 years! 🐦 #Ornithology @rspbscience.bsky.social @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @birdsinwales.bsky.social

@britishdragonflies.bsky.social

Is this a vagrant emporer dragonfly? Seen today Pymoor, Cambridgeshire sheltering from the gales

Is this a vagrant emporer dragonfly? Seen today Pymoor, Cambridgeshire sheltering from the gales

Urbanization affects bird species unequally, and understanding why is a key question in ecology. Researchers examined eight life history and ecological traits across 431 North American bird species to identify factors associated with urban tolerance: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... #RSOS

Grassland set-asides provide nesting habitat for bumble bees in agroecosystems... besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

1/ Nature is in peril. Drastic declines and specialist species struggling is what the Wild Bird Indicators, using BTO data & published by Defra, show. Here’s what we know ⬇️ The All Bird Species Index shows 19% declines in the UK since 1970. This comprises 132 species. 📉 #Ornithology

Bird populations at lowest level in record 😢 I am a nerdy birder and keep records. At the simplest level, this summer’s drought saw off most of our local blackbirds and song thrushes. And that’s before we add loss of habitat, pesticides, pollution & disease.

🐸 New project! We're tracking how IUCN status changes through time across Europe's amphibians & reptiles—and what may drive those shifts. A preregistered, open-science look beyond the Red List snapshot. 🌍📈 Manuscript coming soon! #HerpStatusEurope #Biodiversity #Naturschutz #Βιοποικιλότητα 🐍🦎 #IUCN

‘Shocking and sobering’: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on record

‘Shocking and sobering’: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on record Nearly 1/2 of species are in decline, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit, conservation bodies say @jncc.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️🐦 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Absolutely desperate. As @guyshrubsole.bsky.social was saying at the weekend: 50 MILLION pheasants are released into the wild annually. The biomass outweighs that of all native bird species combined.

The Wild Bird Populations Indicator is compiled by the BTO, RSPB and JNCC This is made possible through huge efforts of skilled volunteers helping us track bird populations for over 50yrs By supporting our joint long-term monitoring programmes you can help strengthen our case for protecting nature

Today’s update of the official Wild Bird Populations Indicator for the UK and England depressingly reveals continued declines across habitats, both in the short and long term Read on for more www.gov.uk/government/s...

Northern Gannets, Bonaventure Island, 2023. No mass mortalities. 40% +ve for anti-NP antibodies, w 92% having elevated iris pigmentation irregularities. Relationship less strong with H5 seropositive birds. Some pigmentation pre outbreaks.. 👉 academic.oup.com/conphys/arti...

Sheep densities across Europe. Native to southwest Asia, these domesticates are possibly the most effective means of killing off forests and other natural ecosystems ever devised.

We’re proud to be featured in Global Flyways, a new digital film series from @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social and @contentwithpurpose.bsky.social In this film, we share how we are working with communities to protect migratory birds: contentwithpurpose.co.uk/birdlife/glo... 🪶 🌍️ #WorldMigratoryBirdDay

"Conservation biology is a science with a time limit, with the clock ticking faster as the human population continues to increase... I believe future generations will find it blankly incomprehensible that we are deveoting so little money and effort to study these questions." Robert May 1988

Nutrackers building up in the low countries. Occurrences in pink, counts in blue for week 1-7 Oct www.eurobirdportal.org/ebp/en/#home...

WE WON. Lead in gunshot will finally be banned across the EU! Just now, the European Parliament approved in plenary the Commission's proposal to restrict lead in gunshot. This decision ends years of debate on one of Europe's most persistent forms of lead pollution.

We're excited to announce our MSc projects for 2027 are live! 🧪🪶 Our postgraduate opportunities page now also advertises placement projects for PhD students too Find out more here: www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...

An international census of wintering Yellow-breasted Buntings was completed across six Asian countries between mid-February and mid-March 2026:

My boss from his time at BTO. Congratulations, Will! Very well deserved.

Congratulations to Will Peach, winner of @marshawards.bsky.social for Ornithology! During his career at BTO & @rspbscience.bsky.social Will has applied exemplary analytical skills, making breakthroughs with ringing scheme data & leading UK-wide work on diagnosing causes of bird population declines.

Counted 11 clouded yellow butterflies today - Thorn Hill, Wimpole Estate @nationaltrust.org.uk @savebutterflies.bsky.social

New job alert 🪶🧪 We are hiring a Conservation Scientist to work on links between hydrological restoration and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker conservation Deadline: 7/10/26 Apply here: app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... #SpeciesRecoveryProgramme @naturalengland.bsky.social 📷Ben Andrew

What a farce. As farmers fail to access funds to support sustainable farming, this will undoubtedly mean valuable wildlife habitat (recently created or much older) will be destroyed, as farmers feel they have no option but to intensify their farming systems. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Maxent produces a map with no error bars, despite there often being great uncertainty in species distributions. We examine the trouble with using Maxent for delimiting species distributions, especially for Red List assessments. Open access: doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

STAV PTÁKŮ SVĚTA je občas neradostné čtení, ale chceme-li něco změnit, musíme rozumět, kde mají problémy kořen. A tahle zpráva to ukazuje perfektně.

Discover the State of the World’s Birds!🐦 This sixth edition by BirdLife International focuses on migratory birds and their flyways, and what they reveal about the state of nature, the drivers of biodiversity loss, and the solutions needed to reverse declines.🗺️ Find it here👉 sowb.birdlife.org

What can 20+ years of GPS tracking teach us about saving Eurasian Curlews? A lot! Tracking data from 626 curlews across Europe revealed remarkably strong fidelity to breeding & wintering sites, critical life stages, and key places & pressures affecting survival. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... 1/3

‘Though a case study with limited generalizability, our investigation shows that mimetic birdsong can affect the performance of this globally important avian passive acoustic monitoring tool.’ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very chuffed that our dotterel study made the front cover of Proceedings B! 🎉 Thread below: 👇

New job alert🪶 2.5yr fixed term Conservation Scientist role in our England and Wales team Project: Developing a trial management intervention for upland breeding Whinchat through a programme of new science Deadline: 23 Sept Full details here: app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... 📷Ben Andrew

Just published: UK and England butterfly population indicators using UKBMS data. These show a long-term decline in the all-species index in the UK of 18% and a 37% decline for habitat specialists in the UK. Check out the full statistics here ⬇️ www.gov.uk/government/s...

(1/) Sadly, the jangling song of Corn Bunting is being heard in fewer countries in Northwest Europe nowadays. However, since the 1980s, this species has increased in Central Europe and parts of Eastern Europe. @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social #Ornithology

After a wildfire Britain’s moors and heaths can be green again within weeks – but the real recovery takes much longer theconversation.com/after-a-wild...

Extreme drought is changing Britain’s wildlife – and some effects won’t be seen until next year theconversation.com/extreme-drou...

"For generations as a nation we’ve drained wetlands, straightened rivers and moved water off the land as quickly as possible. Here, we’ve reversed that approach and the results are remarkable" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🥳 New paper out in the Journal of Biogeography! I am excited to share the first PhD chapter from Zhichang Cheng, who I co-supervise with Fred de Boer. Habitat and Thermal Breadth Shape Climate-Driven Range Shifts in Arctic Birds onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology

The IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment Report is the first of its kind highlighting methods and more than 100 specific actions to measure and respond to business impacts and dependencies. 📚 Learn more about #BizBiodiversity: https://www.ipbes.net/business-impact

The study combines data from 149 field studies, in 27 countries across five continents to compare the impacts of plant diversity on natural pest predators across croplands, grasslands and forests. UKCEH's Ben Woodcock is among the co-authors. See our news: https://tinyurl.com/3mtyu6ft 2/2

Emergent patterns of island biodiversity in the Anthropocene | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

1/ A major new global review published in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com, featuring BTO authors CEO @julietvickery.bsky.social & Senior Research Ecologist Chris Hewson, finds that 51% of the world’s migratory bird species are declining! #Ornithology 🌍🌐 📖 www.bto.org/MigratoryBir...

A recent study led by Carmen D. Soria, also using European Breeding Bird Atlas data, reveals that species richness and most distributions are consistently clustered in space across regions and time periods, confirming that biodiversity tends to form "patches." More:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...