Urban Ornithological Atlases in Europe: A Review

Abstract

For half a century regarded as the most appropriate methodological approach for censusing wild animals and plants, the atlases are also used for presenting the distribution of avifauna in European towns and cities. This chapter looks at ornithological atlases concerning solely an urban area and not in a much more extensive region of which that area is just a small part. To date (2014) at least 77 avifauna atlases have been published for 66 towns and cities in Europe. In Italy (44 atlases), Poland (12) and Germany (8), this is currently the usual way of describing the distribution of bird species within an entire urban area. The cartographic basis for presenting the material is usually a grid of cells based on Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) or some other system like the Gauss-Krüger. Less commonly, the grid is defined by geographic coordinates, and, exceptionally, a mosaic of irregularly shaped plots may be used, as in the Turin and Warsaw atlases. The majority of atlases relate exclusively to breeding birds, the maps showing the probability of breeding and/or the number of breeding in the grid cells. Only a few urban atlases supply cartographic information on wintering birds or their year-round status. Repeat editions of atlases include maps comparing present and past distributions. For most cases each atlas cell was surveyed ca four times per season. The fieldwork usually lasted 1–2 years in small towns but from 3 to 10 years in larger ones. The number of observers was often independent of the size of the area to be surveyed: in some cases up to a dozen or so experienced ornithologists were involved, but usually a large number (50–60 to over 100) volunteers took part. Compared with traditional verbal descriptions, an atlas mapping the distribution of birds in an urban area is of greater use as a scientific document, as a source of data for urban planning and for popularising wildlife among its inhabitants. It ensures better coverage of the area, comparability and transparency of the data and is more useful for municipal administration purposes.