One third of European breeding bird species are migrant birds that occur across the continent and winter in Africa, and most of these species are landbirds. Many species are in serious decline from multiple causes in multiple areas of the flyway. A COST Action scientific network is needed to understand these migrant landbird population dynamics because research must take place over the scale of the birds‘ flyway. We will therefore create a scientific network at the appropriately large scale through flyway-level cooperation and coordination of existing local research throughout Europe, and training and sharing of expertise to peripheral countries. The network will also facilitate new research to determine the time and place of population limitations in the annual cycle of each migrant landbird species. The research is interdisciplinary, including ecology, remote sensing, geographical models and development of statistical techniques to allow effective prediction of how climate and habitat change affect migrant populations. Effective management actions to address migrant bird declines can then be identified and implemented through species action plans, operating efficiently across Europe because they arise from a network already cooperating at that scale. The scientific breakthrough will be to carry out fundamental migrant landbird research at the appropriate scale: examples of the effectiveness of this approach are just emerging and we aim to make this standard across Europe and peripheral countries. This will lead to improvements in our ability to effectively conserve migrant landbird populations that contribute ecosystem services such as biodiversity and quality of life.
