Scientific publications

More than 400 Russian ornithologists combined their efforts to bring the present Atlas of the Breeding Birds of European Russia to completion as part of a European Bird Census Council project aimed at creating European Breeding Bird Atlas 2. The main period of field work for collecting data to be represented in this Atlas extended from 2012 to 2018, but figures obtained as early as 2005, and onwards, have also been accounted for. 1628 out of the total of 1842 50×50 km squares forming the territory of European Russia have been surveyed anew, and for each square the authors provided a full list of breeding bird species, defined the breeding categories and gave an estimation of their abundance. The research thus completed made it possible to identify and register 415 breeding bird species, and to provide for each of them the maps showing, respectively, the breeding evidence and abundance estimates for every square where they have been found, as well as a map of their breeding area in non-Russian Europe; in addition, for many species modelled maps based on the data obtained from the 10×10 km squares have also been provided. Every species account contains a brief description of the respective species distribution over the world, in Europe and in European Russia, its subspecies structure, details of its habitat distribution, the changes in its distribution and abundance, and the estimation of abundance of the species across the territory covered by the Atlas. The wealth of information assembled under the cover of the present volume offers a comprehensive record of avifauna situation on the territory of European Russia over the last 15 years, making a sound foundation for further monitoring of changes in the distribution and abundance of breeding bird species.