Seventeen years of research on northern wheatears in the dunes

December 19, 2023

In recent decades, the northern wheatear has declined sharply in the Netherlands. This characteristic breeding bird of dry open dunes is struggling with, among other things, habitat degradation due to nitrogen deposition. Because the species often breeds in old rabbit burrows, the decline in the rabbit population is also a problem. Sovon is conducting research … Read More

Farmland practices are driving bird populations decline across Europe

June 19, 2023

Biodiversity is exposed to increasing pressure by climate and land use changes. But how are species responding to these pressures and which pressure is more dominant remain controversial questions. A recent collaborative study including 28 European countries assesses, for the first time, how 170 bird species have responded to major human induced pressures at a … Read More

More grazing geese does not always mean less harvest

December 19, 2022

It would seem logical: more geese eat more grass, leaving less for the farmer to harvest. But a recent study suggests it may not be so straightforward. An international team led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) looked at the impact of different goose species and the number of geese on agricultural damage. Their … Read More

Save the chicks to save the population

September 2, 2022

On September 14, 2022, Magali Frauendorf will defend her thesis ‘Causes of spatiotemporal variation in reproductive performance of Eurasian oystercatchers in a human-dominated landscape’ at Radboud University. In December 2016 she started her PhD in the project CHIRP (Cumulative Human Impact on biRd Populations) at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in collaboration with Radboud University … Read More

Symposium Oystercatcher 29 October 2022

September 2, 2022

Why is the Oystercatcher population declining ? And can we turn this tide? What are the cumulative effects of human activities in the breeding and wintering areas? The Cumulative Human Impact on biRd Populations (CHIRP) study investigated these questions. CHIRP will be closed at the beginning of 2022. In the Symposium Oystercatcher we look back … Read More

Why is the population of breeding Mallards in the Netherlands declining?

August 15, 2022

Why is the population of breeding Mallards in the Netherlands declining? Based on an analysis of four different datasets collected by citizen scientists, researchers from Sovon Vogelonderzoek, Radboud University and the Vogeltrekstation have come to the conclusion that a high duckling mortality is the main cause. If we want to protect the Mallard, we will … Read More

What are the effects of aircraft on birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea?

November 13, 2020

The Wadden Sea is of great importance to shorebirds, with millions of birds overwintering or fuelling for migration in the area each year. But they also face disturbances from natural and anthropogenic sources, including raptors, walkers, cyclists, boats and aircraft. A new, three-year study takes a detailed look at the effects of aircraft on the … Read More