FUNDS SOUGHT BY BTO FOR NEW RESEARCH INITIATIVE ON PLIGHT OF FAST-DECLINING FLYCATCHER

Spotted flycatchers have been lost to areas where they were once common

DESPITE their unspectacular grey-brown plumage, everyone loves spotted flycatchers. But this jaunty summer visitor is a species in serious decline. The breeding population fell   39 per cent between 1995 and 2016, part of a longer-term decline of 87 per cent since 1970. In the hope of reversing this trend, the BTO is intent on pioneering more research - specifically by launching a migration-tracking project for which it is seeking funds. Below is a statement issued earlier this month by the BTO.

One of our most treasured songbirds, the Spotted Flycatcher, is disappearing. 

Formerly considered a common garden nesting species, it  is now a bird that many people are willing to travel a long way to see. 

The results of our initial research indicate that more spotted flycatchers are dying during the first year of their lives,  and that this increased mortality is likely to be behind the population decline.

Our new appeal seeks to raise funds that will enable BTO scientists to use a combination of the latest tracking devices and the support of local volunteers to follow individual birds as they migrate away from their breeding sites. 

This will help us to identify their wintering grounds and the areas that the birds use as stop-over sites en route.

From this we can begin to uncover how events at different stages of the birds’ annual cycle could be impacting on their population.

The project aims to pinpoint why Spotted flycatchers are dying, so that we might stand a better chance of addressing the alarming declines that we have charted over the last 50 years.

* More information at:
https://www.bto.org/support-us/appeals/spotted-flycatcher-appeal