Fewer than 300 pairs of swamp buntings left (Emberiza shoeniclus) is one of the endangered birds in Spain and only survives in very specific wetlands in the Peninsular and Balearic Islands. One of the two subspecies of this bird is on its way to direct extinction with less than 30 pairs nationwide.
swamp bunting It shows a decrease of 62% in the case of the Ibero-Western subtype and 22% in the case of the Ibero-Eastern subtype.According to the latest census by SEO/BirdLife of this bird, which is closely linked to the wetlands of Spain.
According to the existence of this protection, This species is associated with wetlands and therefore has suffered particularly from the effects of the transformation and fragmentation of these ecosystems.. As a result, it is ‘quietly walking’ towards extinction, as the comparison between this census and the previous 2005 census shows.
Report, Ibero-Western subspecies currently have only 20 or 30 breeding pairs, while Ibero-Eastern subspecies still have 238 to 244 pairs.It allows it to be included in the “critically endangered” category in the lists of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Both populations “already collapsed” in the early 21st century, with numbers documented to have declined by more than 80%, according to the document.
Currently, the two subspecies are concentrated in two areas of only 10 square kilometers: the Ibero-Western Marsh Bunting in six wetlands in Galicia and the Ibero-Eastern type found in separate areas of the Ebro Delta, Las Tablas de Daimiel and Albufera. in Mallorca.
Recently extinct in Euskadi, Cantabria and Asturias.
In the last two decades, this bird has become extinct in other autonomous communities such as the Basque Country, Cantabria, and Asturias.
According to SEO/BirdLife, their survival requires certain plant formations in wetlands with constant flooding, such as sparse reeds, masegars and flooded reeds.
He was particularly affected by the disappearance of 60% to 75% of wetlands in the Iberian Peninsula in the last two centuries. Because of their tendency to form reduced breeding populations in small wetlands, many of them were destroyed by “changes in water regimes due to agricultural concentration and use of aquifers”.
For all these reasons, SEO/BirdLife prepared a draft for Ecological Transition and Demographic Struggle and sent it to the Ministry. Strategy proposal to prevent the definitive extinction of the Marsh Bunting in Spain.
Mario Giménez, SEO/BirdLife representative at Valencia Community, insisted on the need to “work on two pillars”: one depends on the region, specific management actions that preserve and restore suitable habitats for speciesand another, improving the hydrological management of the wetlands in which they are located, through the implementation of integrated policies in the watersheds of these areas”.
Also, according to the technician, “The number of breeding pairs should be increased in wetlands where the species is present., thereby increasing its ability to disperse to new breeding sites. Also increase the range of distribution by improving habitats in wetlands where the species has been found in the last 20 years and facilitating resettlement of these locations by improving connectivity and landscape permeability between wetlands”.
Palustre Notary Census 2021: https://seo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Monografia_58_Escribano-palustre.pdf
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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]