De Levende Natuur nummer 3 van 2006 (English summary)

Recent trend of meadow birds in The Netherlands

Teunissen, W.A. & L.L. Soldaat

Monitoring data reveal significant changes in the number of meadow birds in The Netherlands. Most of the trends are negative and recently (last five years) all meadow birds in the monitoring scheme are declining. The overall yearly change has even tripled since 2000 compared to the nineties. Decreases are not restricted to waders. Songbirds like Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Yellow Wagtail declined in
some regions up to 30 % from year to year and may lead to a population drop by 75 % in five years. This may even lead to a drop in biodiversity. Alarming is especially the steep decline of some meadow birds in the western peatland of The Netherlands. Although this key region for meadow birds is managed with special conservation measures, these management schemes did not stop the current decline of many
species, e.g. Black-tailed Godwit. Since a large part of the European population is breeding in The Netherlands, this is alarming on the European scale as well.