Atlas reveals birds pushed further north amid climate crisis
Written by Phoebe Weston
Data from 120,000 birdwatchers in 48 countries shows forest birds have expanded their range while area occupied by farmland birds has shrunk
Europe’s breeding bird populations have shifted on average one kilometre north every year for the past three decades, likely driven by the climate crisis, according to one of the world’s largest citizen science projects on biodiversity.
The European Breeding Bird Atlas (Ebba2) provides the most detailed picture yet of the distribution of the continent’s birds after 120,000 volunteers and fieldworkers surveyed 11m square kilometres, from the Azores in the west to the Russian Urals in the east.
Citizen science is research performed by non-scientists, usually members of the public. It has led to numerous discoveries, from new planets and animal species to insights on coral reef restoration and butterfly populations. Nasa, the Natural History Museum and even the US government are among the many organisations that ask members of the public, including children, to help collect data, interpret results and solve research problems for scientific projects.
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