What we don’t know about birds in Scotland

R.W. SUMMERS, M. LEWIS & S. HUNTER

Although much is known about the biology of the birds that live in Scotland, it is useful to have up-to-date information on the status of populations, ideally followed up with an understanding of the reasons for any change. Armed with such knowledge, conservation measures may be implemented. Information on bird migrations and habitat requirements can also be helpful for the conservation of species, to ensure that suitable sites in different regions are available at particular times of the year. The requirements for further knowledge are more pertinent nowadays, given that the world is experiencing biodiversity loss as a consequence of habitat loss and an increase in global temperature. There is also a place to fulfil scientific curiosity that may have no bearing on conservation need, because new findings may lead to unexpected routes in the study of birds. This article notes some of the gaps in our knowledge with respect to Scottish birds and highlights a website that is a fuller account of gaps. In these ways, we hope that we can stimulate studies by SOC members and other ornithologists to fill such gaps, and encourage those with bird knowledge in Scotland to engage with the website to improve and update it.

Introduction

Much is known about the biology and status of birds in Scotland, as reviewed in three major accounts: The Birds of Scotland (Baxter & Rintoul 1953), Birds in Scotland (Thom 1986) and The Birds of Scotland (Forrester et al. 2007). In the latter publication, the authors of the individual species’ accounts offered their perspectives on gaps in our knowledge of regularly occurring species, recognising that there is still much to learn about Scottish birds.

This article highlights some of the gaps in knowledge as listed in Forrester et al. (2007) but recognises that many such gaps have been filled since the publication of The Birds of Scotland. We also draw attention to a SOC website (https://www.the-soc.org.uk/about-us/knowledge-gapsdatabase) that highlights where future research effort for each species could be devoted. We hope that this website will be a port of call for those who are interested in carrying out studies of birds in Scotland. We also hope that the website can be interactive through additions, expansions and deletions of topics as knowledge develops. Many areas for further study are within the abilities of keen amateur birdwatchers and bird ringers to contribute to our understanding of particular species, either working as individuals, groups, or collaborating with professionals. We focus especially on those species that are red- or amber-listed as birds of conservation concern within the UK (Stanbury et al. 2021), as well as highlighting some species and subspecies where Scotland holds most, or all, of the UK population.

Before addressing some of these knowledge gaps, we describe the key avenues of study that monitor the population status of many of Scotland’s birds.

Distribution and numbers

National surveys have been developed by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) through atlas projects that provide the mapped distribution of each species during the breeding season and winter (Balmer et al. 2013). The run of atlas projects, combined with Holloway’s (1996) historical atlas, provide snapshots of the change in distribution of all species, including those species (e.g. Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra) that are too scarce in Scotland for trends to be reported by other surveys. Several regions have had their own atlas projects, describing species’ distributions at a

Scottish Birds: 118–131

Changes in breeding wader populations of the Uist machair and adjacent habitats between 1983 and 2022