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Monitoring terrestrial breeding bird populations

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Monitoring for Conservation and Ecology

Part of the book series: Conservation Biology ((COBI,volume 3))

Abstract

It is important to monitor bird populations for two main reasons. First, birds form an important and popular wildlife resource which is worth conserving in its own right. Second, given that it is impractical to monitor all groups of organisms on a wide scale, birds provide valuable indicators of the state of the environment. They are usually high in food chains and so particularly susceptible to environmental changes. This is well illustrated by the population declines and breeding failures of raptors which drew attention to the harmful effects of persistent organochlorine pesticides (Newton 1979, 1986; Ratcliffe 1980).

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Baillie, S.R. (1991). Monitoring terrestrial breeding bird populations. In: Goldsmith, B. (eds) Monitoring for Conservation and Ecology. Conservation Biology, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3086-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3086-8_7

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