Testing if Habitat and Movements Determine the Threats and Trends for Common Birds in Europe

Abstract

There is a growing concern about the biodiversity crisis the planet is suffering due to increasingly widespread human activity. A key question is whether only the species with threatened status should be managed by policy makers or whether also common species deserve consideration. This study is devoted for common birds, because for the threatened species the decline factors are much better known. As a result of a thorough search, a comparison at the continental scale focusing on European common birds and analysing their main threats and trends depending on their habitats and movements (migratory or sedentary character) has been done. This is therefore a theoretical study that tries to investigate the relationships between these four variables that condition in an important way the state of their populations. The different categorical variables (habitats, movements, threats and trends) were checked together in order to find some relationships between them, using log-linear analysis or contingency tables depending on the number of variables considered. We can conclude that “Threats” are different between both “Habitats” and “Movements” of common birds, which also interact between them. The trends in European common birds are slightly influenced by the habitat they occupy which is at the same time associated with their movements. Studies with this approach in different areas could be valuable to analyse common patterns that could guide conservation efforts and action plans in specific directions and increase their efficiency with less expenditure of resources.