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page.Why do We Protect Birds?
Many species of birds are becoming increasingly rare from year to year. In some cases man's greed has been responsible for their total exter-mination. One such example is the great auk. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it still nested in fair abundance in Iceland, on the coasts of Ireland, Scotland and Newfoundland, in the Hebrides and Faroes, on the coasts of Denmark, southern Sweden, Norway, Green-land and the eastern coast of North America. In the eighteenth century its eggs were still being collected in large numbers so that by the end of the century it had completely disappeared in many places. Hunters took not only eggs but killed even adult birds for their feathers, meat and fat, which they sold. Nowadays this sea bird is a thing of the past and stuffed specimens may be seen only in a few museums; there are only seventy-four known specimens in museum col-lections throughout the world.
The great auk, however, was not the only bird that became extinct as a species. The same fate met the Labrador duck, which nested in Lab-rador and on rocky islands round the Gulf of St Lawrence and wintered in the area stretching from the coast of Nova Scotia to New Jersey. Its history is very brief. It was first discovered by scientists in the year 1788. Thirty years later the land was settled by man and the islands where the birds nested were visited by large numbers of hunters who shot the birds and took the eggs from the nests, selling them on the market in New York. The Labrador duck thus rapidly disappeared from its haunts, the last specimen being shot in the year 1875 near Long Island. Today there are only forty-two stuffed speci-mens in museum collections and not one egg survived.
Several other birds have become extinct, in-cluding the spectacled cormorant, which at one time nested in large numbers in the Komandor-ski Islands, and many other species have sur-vived only thanks to timely protective mea-sures.
In the first half of the twentieth century the number of guillemots in Labrador, on the coasts of Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland and other pieces declined alarmingly. Other auks, too, were killed for their meat and eggs, which were gathered in large numbers. In some breed-ing grounds, e. g. in Labrador and Heligoland, the puffin has disappeared altogether. In the past puffins were killed for their tasty meat, which according to experts was as good as that of the partridge. Even though in many places these birds are now protected, in others they continue to be hunted even to this day. They are caught in flight nets attached to long poles. Today, thanks to protective measures, the puffin breeds again in greater numbers on the coasts of Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Great Britain, the western coast of France and eastern coast of North America. It forms colonies containing several hundreds to thousands of paired birds. Some 50,000 pairs nest on Vedoy Island, whereas the colonies on the coast of Greenland number only several hundred birds. Largest are the colonies in Iceland and the Faroes, where some 2.5 million bird's nest, as well as in Great Britain, where they number two million al'1 told. The entire world population is now estimated at fif-teen million and in view of the fact that many breeding grounds are now reserves you would think that its survival was assured, but it would be far from the truth. The accidental introduc-tion of predators such as rats to its breeding islands and chemical or oil pollution at sea could soon reduce its numbers.
Guillemots and razorbills were also killed in large numbers in the past and thus in danger of becoming extinct. Greatest damage was caused through the garhering of their eggs. In Iceland, in the year 1913, more than 110,000 guillemots and razorbills were captured in addition to a quarter million puffins, in 1923 some 50,000 and in ensuing years, when their numbers had been greatly decimated, only 9,000. In Green-land some 20,000 Brunnich's guillemots were still captured yearly at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the Faroes half a million guillemots' eggs were gathered within a period of six weeks in the year 1945. In Novaya Zemlya no less than three million eggs and some half a million auks were captured from 1930 to 1950. In 1932 and 1933 the meat and eggs of auks comprised more than thirty percent of Novaya Zemlya's entire production. It is estimated that until recently some ten million eggs of the guil-lemot and one million eggs of Brunnich's guil-lemot were gathered yearly. The number of eggs of other European birds, e. g. gulls and terns, also totalled hundreds of thousands. Adult guil-lemots and razorbills were captured by hunters in snares (and still are in some places). Their meat was dried and, in Iceland, even fed to dogs. The meat does not smell of fish and is consi-dered a delicacy by the natives. Their skins are used by Eskimoes for making outer garments. Fresh sea bird eggs are still considered an impor-tant food to this day. In some places it is still permitted to collect eggs, but only those of the first clutch; the second clutch is protected by law. Birds will lay a second clutch within fifteen to twenty days. In northerly regions, however, conditions are not as conducive to rearing the young of the second clutch. Besides, eggs may be collected in this manner only in such nesting grounds as are not visited by foxes, which de-stroy not only the eggs but kill young nestlings as well. If provided with full protection a colony of birds has a potential increase of only about ten percent a year, but if only the second clutch is protected by law then at most the colony retains its status quo unless its numbers are depleted by other circumstances such as natural enemies, bad weather and the like.
One bright spot in the overall picture is that these endangered birds are rigidly protected in wildlife reserves and their populations are gradually increasing in number. Countries that provide protection for sea birds include first and foremost Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, the USSR, German Federal Republic and certain other European maritime nations.
Somewhat better off was the eider. Even though its eggs were gathered in some places it was protected in general. However, this was not primarily for conservationist but for mercenary reasons, because the soft down which the duck plucks from her breast to line the nest is a lucra-tive item of commerce. Fresh down that has not become soiled is the most valuable. When the down is taken from the nest the duck plucks out further down to replace it, usually after she has begun incubating. This down, however, is of lesser value for it is generally soiled. In order to provide eiders with more opportunities for nest-ing down collectors in many places construct hollows of stones or place tree trunks on the shore underneath which eiders are fond of build-ing their nests. The eiders are disturbed by no one here apart from the collectors and they have therefore no fear of man. Eiders are very plenti-ful in some protected areas. Paired bird's build their nests close beside each other thus forming whole colonies. A single nest generally contains about fifteen grams, occasionally as much as thirty to thirty-five grams, of eiderdown. Only the occasional nest is without any down lining. The incubating instinct in eiders is so strong that many young unpaired females seek out the clutches of other birds, often abandoned, and incubate them themselves. A single collector can gather about two kilograms of down a day. The greatest supply of eiderdown comes from Ice-land where it was already harvested centuries
ago and where, according to records, eiders were protected in some places from as early as 1281. Since 1702 eiders throughout the whole of Ice-land have been protected by law and killing just a single bird was punished by a heavy jail sen-tence. In 1805 Iceland sold 1,072 kilograms of eiderdown and in 1916 even 4,355 kilograms, which is the equivalent of down from more than 220,000 nests. This number represents practi-cally half of all the nests of the Iceland popu-lation, which is estimated at about half a million.
Eiderdown has also been gathered for almost a thousand years on the coast of Norway. The eider is now protected in that country. There are about 200,000 eiders in Norway, 100,000 in Finland, 10,000 on the coasts of Great Britain, and over 4,000 in Denmark. The total European population numbers about one million birds and the world population is an estimated two million.
Many other waterfowl, notably geese, are far worse off and some species have to be strictly protected not only during the breeding season but also in their wintering grounds, which are far from their nesting grounds in totally different countries. One such is the red-breasted goose (Brent ruficollis), which breeds in the northern parts of central Siberia, flying off to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea for the winter. In the past this goose was greatly hunted but at present it is strictly protected by law, for the entire population numbers an estimated 40,000 birds. Stragglers occasionally go as far south as Egypt where they may once have been common as they are represented on ancient tombs.
The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) is not much better off. It is found in the northern part of the Atlantic and winters on the coasts of western Europe. From Greenland it also jour-neys to the eastern coast of North America. The number of all birds is an estimated 30,000.
The brent goose (Branta bernicla) breeds in the arctic tundras of Europe, Asia and North America. Its numbers, however, have also de-clined markedly during the past few decades. In 1931 an average of 10,000 birds wintered in Holland but in 1953 only 1,000. In Denmark their numbers declined from 7,000 to 2,000. At the beginning of this century some 350,000 of these birds wintered in Europe, whereas by the 1950s there were only 20,000. Although in Bri-tain their numbers have risen again in recent years, the American populations comprise nine-ty percent of all existing Brent geese, their esti-mated number being 175,000, which is not very much.
Other species of geese have also declined markedly in number compared with past years. The white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) of northern Europe, Asia and North America, win-ters in western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, northern India, eastern China, Japan and on the Atlantic coast of North America. Holland is nowadays host to some 50,000 of these geese in winter, England to some 7,000. The estimated number of white-fronted geese in the whole world is half a million.
Much rarer is the lesser white-fronted goose (Anser erythropus), which has an estimated world population of 100,000. It breeds in the tundras of Europe and Asia and winters in west-ern Europe, Asia Minor, south of the Caspian Sea as well as in the Nile region.
The bean goose (Anser fabalis) has likewise become less plentiful in recent years. Its breed-ing grounds are the arctic regions of Europe and Asia and the coasts of Greenland. In Europe it winters in the western and southern parts. In some places it is still quite plentiful, e. g. in Iceland there are an estimated 50,000 of these birds at present.
Today it seems that the large numbers of snow geese (Anser caerulescens) have increased some-what even though they have not yet reached their previous levels. The snow goose breeds mainly on the arctic coasts of North America, to a lesser degree on the coasts of south-western Greenland and on Wrangel Island. In the mid-eighteenth century it was still plentiful in the tundras of Siberia but by the beginning of the nineteenth century it disappeared, though no one knows exactly why. In former years it also wintered in great numbers in Japan, but by the middle of this century was also non-existent there. Doubt-lessly, one of the reasons was the shooting of these birds during the moulting period when they are unable to fly. The snow goose breeds mainly along the coast in places that are accessible. Eskimos killed hundreds and even thousands of these birds during the moulting period besides also taking their eggs. The greater part of the Siberian population win-tered in south-western North America, where birds that breed on Wrangle Island still winter to this day. In the 1840s the wintering grounds were visited by many hunters from Europe and the eastern United States, a hundred geese being killed in one day by a single hunter. Nowadays, the snow goose is only found in greater numbers in Asia on Wrangle Island, but in recent years, thanks to the protection of birds in general, it is becoming more plentiful in its former breeding grounds in Siberia, where its numbers are in-creasing every year. The greatest number of snow geese breed in arctic Canada, where the population is estimated at 50,000 birds.
One of the sea birds that have again become more plentiful thanks to conservation measures is the gannet (Sula bassana). Its numbers had been rapidly declining because the eggs, and also the young birds, were being taken from the nest. The number of gannets in 1834 was an esti-mated 330,000 whereas by the end of the cen-tury it was a mere 60,000. Most of the birds were killed in the years 1880 to 1910, when fishermen raided the nesting grounds of the gannet - their `competitor' for the herring catch. Some gannet colonies were entirely de-stroyed. Not only were eggs and young birds taken from the nest but also the feathers lining the nest. The Iceland colonies numbered some 4,000 gannets. These were killed by fishermen also on the open sea. In Iceland they had been hunted since the thirteenth century. As of 1940, however, the gannet is strictly protected on cer-tain islands off Iceland and Norway and so their numbers have increased somewhat in recent years, the same as in the protected colonies in the British Isles.
Birds of prey have also suffered a marked decline. Europe is the home of some forty species of raptors, but most of them are extremely rare species. Man is responsible for the almost total disappearance in Europe of the lammergeyer or bearded vulture (Gypaetus bar-batus). At one time this handsome raptor was a regular nester in the German Alps; the last specimen living there was shot in 1855. Up to 1866 the bearded vulture also nested in the Swiss Alps, but it was not seen again until 1955, almost a hundred years later, when it showed up in the Salzkammergut in Austria. Records of its nesting in the Carpathians date from as late as 1935, but there have been none since.
Members of the falcon tribe, apart from the Eurasian kestrel and red-footed falcon which is widespread in southeastern Europe, are also increasingly rare birds nowadays. The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), though widespread throughout Europe, is a rare species. It was often hunted mercilessly to prevent it from kill-ing off domestic pigeons and its former nesting grounds were greatly depleted. It is true that the peregrine hunts birds, but mostly pigeons, star-lings, magpies, crows and rooks, which have greatly increased in number recently because of the absence of natural enemies. Furthermore, when falcons migrate they feast on pigeons which have reverted to the wild state and which are found in abundance in large cities. In view of the fact that in recent years the peregrine has not nested at all in many European countries where it formerly did so, it is most urgent that it should be protected by all possible means. The greatest threat at present is the removal of eggs and young birds from the nest by egg collectors and falconers.
Long past are the days when the saker falcon (Falco cherrug), one of the largest of the family, used to nest in central Europe. Today it occurs only in eastern Europe with any regularity. The disappearance of the saker falcon from central Europe in the nineteenth century was caused
primarily by collectors, who shot adult birds for ornithological exhibits, and by those who took eggs from their nests.
The gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), one of the handsomest of the family, is likewise extremely rare nowadays and is strictly protected in its breeding grounds in the far north of Europe and in Greenland.
The hobby (Falco subbuteo), though small and harmless to game birds as it feeds mostly on small birds and insects, was mercilessly killed by hunters and in many places exterminated com-pletely. It, too, should be rigidly protected.
The treatment of some birds of prey like the goshawk is a subject of dispute between conser-vation groups and gamekeepers. It is true that the goshawk preys mostly on birds (they com-prise about ninety percent of its diet), but these are mainly corvine birds which cause much dam-age to small songsters and game birds. Naturally, the goshawk's victims also include useful birds as well as game birds and domestic pigeons. How-ever, it nevertheless deserves to be protected. Experience has shown that wherever it has been exterminated jays, crows and magpies have mul-tiplied in such numbers that they have caused far greater damage to wildlife than that wreaked by several goshawk families. Furthermore, the goshawk in the main is a resident bird and its young remain in the vicinity of their home base, usually settling within sixty kilometres of the nest. This makes it possible to keep a check on the goshawk population in a given territory.
he sparrowhawk, one of the most common of small raptors, likewise catches many small birds; at the head of the list, however, is the house sparrow, a generally acknowledged pest. Although its victims also include many other birds, like the goshawk it plays an important role in the regulation of ecological balance.
Absolute protection throughout the year should be afforded to the common buzzard, still common throughout most of Europe, because it feeds chiefly on voles, mice and other harmful rodents, as well as on insects. Detailed analyses of the stomach contents of buzzards have re-vealed that mice and voles comprise a full ninety-six percent of their diet; four percent consisted of wild game, mostly birds that were weakened or diseased.
The rapid disappearance of eagles, harriers, kites, vultures and other kinds of European rap-tors indicate an indisputable need to protect and preserve the species.
Owls, too, of which there are fourteen species in Europe, should be given protection through-out the year. The Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo), largest of the European species, is one of a number of owls that were almost on the brink of extinction in Europe and which now, thanks to stricter rules governing their protection, have again increased in number. Even though its vic-tims are sometimes a young hare, pheasant or wild duck, the greater part of the eagle owl's diet is made up of voles and mice, thus making it a useful bird.
Unlike raptors which first pluck their victims clean and then tear off pieces of flesh, owls swallow large pieces or entire small animals. The indigestible parts - feathers, hairs, and hard insect covers - are regurgitated in solid lumps that look as if they have been pressed. If these are carefully separated they will be found to contain entire skulls of voles and mice and the Elyria of beetles. This makes it possible to deter-mine not only the quantity but also the kind of food consumed by the owl. Analyses of these have revealed that the diet of the tawny owl, one of the most common of European owls, consists mainly of voles and mice. In the case of some individual owls, birds make up about fourteen percent of the diet; of this half are sparrows and the other half is made up of finches, warblers, starlings and blackbirds, in other words birds which are normally found in abundance. If cock-chafers are in large supply a great part of the owls' food will be made up of these harmful beetles.
Another common species, the long-eared owl, feeds largely on small rodents, especially in years when there is an overpopulation of voles or mice. Otherwise, the chief food is again the house sparrow, almost sixty-seven percent of this more or less harmful bird, followed by the finches, tree sparrow and blackbird. Only in rare instances was the food consumed found to con-tain a partridge. When cockchafers are in abundance these also represent a major part of the long-eared owl's diet, being fed also to the young.
In the case of the barn owl voles and mice average about sixty-nine percent of the diet, shrews twenty-five percent, birds only three per-cent, and bats, reptiles and amphibians make up most of the remainder. In years of `mouse' over-population their share in this owl's diet has been recorded as being as high as 95.7 percent. It is interesting to note that when mice are in great abundance the barn owl regularly has two broods a year.
The little owl also feeds mainly on voles and mice, which together comprise about twenty-six percent and occasionally as much as a hundred percent of the bird's diet. In the summer months insects make up a large proportion, but the little owl also hunts to a lesser extent shrews and small birds, mainly starlings, followed by house sparrows, blackbirds and thrushes, i. e. birds that are very plentiful.
The above four species of owls are fairly com-mon in Europe. Other types are rare and there-fore should be afforded exceptional protec-tion.
Click on any of the other bird links, these are Geese
Barnacle Goose : Brent Goose : Canada Goose : Greylag Goose
Or on the Ducks:
Gadwall : Goldeneye : Goosander : Mallard : Pintail : Pochard : Red Breasted Merganser
Red Crested Pochard : Shellduck : Shoveler : Teal : Tufted Duck : Wigeon
And the rest, in no real order of importance:
Common Sandpiper : Coot. : Corncrake : Curlew. : Dunlin : Greenshank : Lapwing : Moorhen : Oystercatcher : Redshank : Ringed Plover : Snipe : Spotted Crake : Stone Curlew : Turnstone : Whimbrel : Woodcock.
Problems Caused by Certain Sea Birds
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