Sam Franks

Breeds in temperate latitudes from W Europe to C Asia (BirdLife International 2021), it is colonizing N Europe, possibly due to climate change (Keller et al. 2020). Migratory strategies vary from resident to partial migrant or migratory (overall, increasing migratory behavior with increasing breeding latitude).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendDecreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		35200000-55900000,43000000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for European Serin

Movements of European populations show a clear S component, SW for the W populations; SE-biased for the C/E populations, giving rise to parallel migration patterns, which would allow high connectivity: winter range of those populations/individuals that migrate is a mirror of their distribution range. W European populations move to Iberia, some individuals even pass to NW Africa; W populations from C Europe move to S France/E Iberia, and progressively to the Italian and Balkan peninsula as they have further eastern breeding ranges. A bird from N Finland recovered in W Europe, suggesting that Scandinavian birds would also follow a NE-SW axis of migration to W Europe, and not S-axis to SE Europe.

Recoveries by Condition for European Serin

Overall, most (>95%) recoveries due to birds captured alive, usually in ringing campaigns. Indeed, reed warblers are one the most captured passerines for ringing due to their very high catchability in mist nets situated across reed beds. By periods, however, a small but still remarkable fraction of recoveries before 1960 were due to birds found dead (ca. 10%), with less than 5% due to shot. This pattern clearly changed during the period 1961-1990, and from 1990 to present the proportion of birds found dead is absolutely marginal. Impressive sample size, with >450,000 recoveries of birds recaptured alive overall.

Annual Movements for European Serin

Patent migration in autumn in Oct; spring migration back to breeding quarters in Mar-Apr; arrival to breeding quarters in N Europe in Apr. Birds in S half of Europe can occupy their breeding sites (especially males) as soon as weather conditions improve in mid- or late-winter.

Connectivity by Month by Region for European Serin

Birds from C Europe show recoveries at their wintering sites situated mostly from E Iberia to Greece mostly from Nov to Feb; these birds show patent passage across the Alps in Oct; many recoveries in Apr in E Italy (spring passage before crossing the Adriatic). Birds from W Germany with many recoveries in Belgium in Oct. W/C-W populations with many recoveries in winter in S France/E Iberia. Birds wintering in Spain seem to concrentrate along Mediterranean coast, up to SW Iberia (Guadalquivir river basin).

Juan Arizaga

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
BirdLife International 2021 . Species factsheet: Serinus serinus.

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