Good news and bad ones

European goldfinch

Magazine Tiira (published by BirdLife Finland) reports in the issue 1/2016 many bad news and only a few good ones about circumstances of birds in today's world.

For example this magazine tells that already one-third of the bird species of Finland are endangered. In Europe tens of millions of birds die  because of the chemicals used in agriculture. Among endangered species is my favorite bird, the crane.

Tiira also reports that in the Mediterranean region about 25 million birds are killed every year.

In January this year BirdLife Finland organized an event called Pihabongaus in Finnish. This event provided for every citizen an opportunity to observe birds in his own courtyard and to report observations to BirdLife Finland.

Eurasian treecreeper

The conclusion on the basis of observations was that the number of birds (36 birds per observation point) was the smallest in the event's history.

Those were the bad news but which were the good ones?

The number of European goldfinch was bigger than ever before. Also the number of Eurasian treecreeper and nuthatch came close to  a quantitative record.