BRC: A model for migration monitoring in new BirdLife review

A new Sandgrouse paper, initiated by Ben Jobson (BirdLife International), reviews the challenges and opportunities for monitoring of migratory soaring birds in the East African-Eurasian flyway. In it, Batumi Raptor Count is highlighted as a key site to monitor the migration of numerous soaring birds, and a best practice model for migration monitoring in the region. That achievement would not have been possible without the collective effort of all volunteers that have allowed us to conduct counts over more than a decade; rigorous data collection, management and analyses; and striving for the highest possible standards in open and reproducible research. Currently, there are more migration counts conducted across the flyway than ever before. We hope this renewed interest will boost collaboration among sites and eventually secures funds for long-term monitoring across the flyway.

Abstract

Monitoring of migratory soaring birds at flyway bottlenecks is vital for informing population estimates and detecting population-level changes, since monitoring these species on their breeding grounds is notoriously difficult. Since the last review of bottleneck monitoring in the Red Sea/Rift Valley flyway over 15 years ago, there has been progress to coordinate and standardise monitoring along flyways around the world for various avian groups, from waterbirds to raptors. The same period also saw dramatic improvements in our understanding of migratory routes through the development of remote tracking technologies. This article reviews current monitoring of major bottlenecks for migratory soaring birds in the East African-Eurasian flyway. We summarise developments in migratory soaring bird monitoring and research and identify priority locations for implementing standardised and coordinated monitoring initiatives. Our review identified 10 sites that have recorded one of the three highest counts for the 12 main migratory soaring bird species in the flyway, and can be considered priorities for targeting future monitoring. Additionally, we provide recommendations to progress coordination and standardisation of monitoring across this globally important flyway.