Swallows: are they disappearing?

[gattomatto]

Dear All,

I seem to remember a lot more swallows flying around at this time of the year abour 10 or so years ago. Does any of you have access to statistics on swallows?

Also in Italy, where I'm from, there definitely used to be soooo many more a few years back! They used to nest under every eave and now one just doesn't see those nests very often any more! There seem to be a few more swifts and sand martins though.

[Domco]

Hi,

The short answer is yes, a bit. They are on the RSPB's Amber List i.e. they are showing declines but they are not as extreme as some. I forget how they categorise it exactly but Google 'State of the Nations Birds RSPB' and you can find out more.

Swallows are generally considered as farmland birds and they are suffering from the continuing and massively destructive sanitisation of the countryside through industrialised farming. This has a range of consequences but a reduction in insect biomass through pesticides and habitat destruction and simplification is likely to be at the top of the list. In addition as migrants they are doubly vulnerable as they have to cope with changes to their wintering grounds and various essential stop-offs in between. I am sure similar mechanisms and trends will be unfolding in Italy as well.

Hope this helps and is of come interest

Dom

[Hobjob]

Less guns in Malta, Cyprus, Italy and France would help many a migrant - though perhaps not swallows which must be darned hard to hit.

[King Edward]

BTO data (here) doesn't indicate any decline in the UK Swallow population, at least not since the 1960s. They do suggest though that the population could be declining in eastern Britain while increasing in the west, and also that it is declining across Europe as a whole.