EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Figure 6.3  Trends in Ireland’s breeding and wintering bird populations, showing short-term (12 year) and long-term (since the early 1980s) population trends (Source: NPWS Article 12 Data 2019) Decreasing Stable Increasing Unknown Decreasing Stable Increasing Unknown Long-term population trend – Breeding Species Short-term population trend – Breeding Species Long-term population trend – Winter Species Short-term population trend – Winter Species B A 11% 20% 23% 19% 7% 51% 44% 25% Decreasing Stable Increasing Unknown Decreasing Stable Increasing Unknown 35% 52% 21% 22% 57% 10% 3% C D The estimated proportions of breeding bird populations in each of the trend categories (Figure 6.3a and b) remain relatively unchanged. The data show that almost 20 per cent of Ireland’s breeding bird species are in long- term decline, with the corn bunting becoming extinct as a breeding species since the Birds Directive came into force in Ireland. Approximately 30 per cent of breeding species populations are stable or have increased over the long term. This includes relatively recent colonists that are showing strong population growth, such as the little egret and great spotted woodpecker, as well as species such as the blackcap, bullfinch and buzzard. Some of our breeding farmland songbirds are under increasing pressures from the modernisation and intensification of agricultural practices; for example, there are estimated to be fewer than 100 breeding pairs of the whinchat and twite in Ireland. Breeding waders such as the curlew (Topic Box 6.2), lapwing, redshank and dunlin have seen a 93 per cent decline in breeding populations over the long term. Most of the wintering species assessed (Figure 6.3c and d) are waterbirds such as geese, ducks, swans and waders that are seasonal visitors to Ireland. Ireland is an internationally important location for hundreds of thousands of visiting waterbirds every year. The populations of over half of these wintering birds are declining over the short term; this includes waders such as the curlew (a greater than 20% decline in winter visitor numbers) and duck species such as the pochard, which has suffered a 91 per cent decline over the short term (Burke et al. , 2018). Other priority bird species are also showing declines, such as the hen harrier, whose numbers are estimated to have declined by almost 9 per cent since 2010 (Ruddock et al. , 2016), and the merlin (Irish Raptor Study Group, 2018). Recently, data from the ‘Hen Harrier Programme’ are showing some increased breeding success of this bird of prey species in protected areas. Ireland’s wintering waterbirds may be responding to climate change as many species are showing a north- easterly shift in their range across Europe (Burke et al. , 2018; NPWS, 2020). Decades of land use change and habitat degradation have led to large declines in our ground nesting birds, as highlighted by the long-term declines seen in curlew, corncrake and lapwing, for example. 134