Citizen science and bird decline: the European goldfinch takes center stage
SEO/BirdLife has released the second video in its series "Somos Ciencia, Somos Acción" (We Are Science, We Are Action). It is devoted to citizen science, with the European goldfinch, Bird of the Year 2026, as its star. I think it is a good way to remind us that people who go out with binoculars to watch birds can contribute useful data.
The underlying question is how we know that birds are disappearing. According to the organization, the answer lies in thousands of people who go out into the countryside every year, observe, count, and share their data. SEO/BirdLife coordinates more than 12 citizen science programs, with more than 3,000 volunteers taking part in censuses and other monitoring. Altogether, more than 18,000 people take part in its volunteer programs each year, and close to 16 million data points have been collected.
The report "El Estado de las Aves de España 2024" paints a worrying picture. The monitoring programs for common birds, Sacre (spring), Sacin (winter), and Noctua (nocturnal birds), show a widespread decline. In spring, 43% of species have declined since 1998, and among nocturnal birds more than half are in decline. Affected species include the house sparrow, the common swift, the European greenfinch, and the European goldfinch.
The goldfinch still has a large population, but it suffers from illegal capture for commercial purposes, from being kept in captivity, and from the effects of excessive use of pesticides and herbicides. Its population shows a moderate decline of 7.3% according to the Sacre program. You do not need to be a professional scientist to contribute: what matters is the consistency of observations over the years.
Source: SEO/BirdLife
The underlying question is how we know that birds are disappearing. According to the organization, the answer lies in thousands of people who go out into the countryside every year, observe, count, and share their data. SEO/BirdLife coordinates more than 12 citizen science programs, with more than 3,000 volunteers taking part in censuses and other monitoring. Altogether, more than 18,000 people take part in its volunteer programs each year, and close to 16 million data points have been collected.
The report "El Estado de las Aves de España 2024" paints a worrying picture. The monitoring programs for common birds, Sacre (spring), Sacin (winter), and Noctua (nocturnal birds), show a widespread decline. In spring, 43% of species have declined since 1998, and among nocturnal birds more than half are in decline. Affected species include the house sparrow, the common swift, the European greenfinch, and the European goldfinch.
The goldfinch still has a large population, but it suffers from illegal capture for commercial purposes, from being kept in captivity, and from the effects of excessive use of pesticides and herbicides. Its population shows a moderate decline of 7.3% according to the Sacre program. You do not need to be a professional scientist to contribute: what matters is the consistency of observations over the years.
Source: SEO/BirdLife
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