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as carp fish farms or reservoirs [2] . It is a colonial<br />

breed<strong>in</strong>g bird and colonies are mixed with other<br />

species, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g herons, cormorants and gulls.<br />

Eurasian spoonbills nest <strong>in</strong> trees, reed beds or<br />

dunes. They forage <strong>in</strong> mudflats or other shallow<br />

open waters for small fish, shrimp or other aquatic<br />

<strong>in</strong>vertebrates [2, 4] .<br />

Legal protection and conservation status<br />

The Eurasian spoonbill is listed <strong>in</strong> Appendix II of<br />

CITES, Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, Annex II of<br />

the Bern Convention, Annex II of the Convention on<br />

Migratory Species, under which it is covered by the<br />

African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) [5] .<br />

Both populations <strong>in</strong> Europe are currently listed <strong>in</strong><br />

column A (category 2) <strong>in</strong> the AEWA action plan [6] .<br />

Abundance:<br />

current status and changes<br />

The Eurasian spoonbill cont<strong>in</strong>ental flyway<br />

population (central and southeastern Europe/<br />

Mediterranean) has shown an uncerta<strong>in</strong> but<br />

negative trend between 1988 and 2006, decl<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />

by 2.1% per year [10] (Figure 1). This apparent decl<strong>in</strong>e<br />

is mostly driven by severe decreases <strong>in</strong> Russia and<br />

IWC Population Index (%)<br />

350<br />

300<br />

250<br />

200<br />

150<br />

100<br />

50<br />

0<br />

W Europe / W Mediterranean and W Africa<br />

C & SE Europe / Mediterranean & Tropical Africa<br />

1988<br />

1989<br />

1990<br />

1991<br />

1992<br />

1993<br />

1994<br />

1995<br />

1996<br />

1997<br />

1998<br />

1999<br />

2000<br />

2001<br />

2002<br />

2003<br />

2004<br />

2005<br />

2006<br />

Turkey [3] . However, the part of the population that is<br />

<strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> Europe, as def<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> this study, is <strong>in</strong> fact<br />

<strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g [3] (Table 2). The most important populations<br />

for the European part of the cont<strong>in</strong>ental flyway<br />

are Hungary and Romania, which together make<br />

up more than 70% of the total flyway population<br />

and both of which are <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g [11, 12] (Table 2). New<br />

colonies have also recently been established <strong>in</strong> Italy,<br />

the Czech Republic and Slovakia [3, 13] .<br />

The Atlantic flyway population (west Europe<br />

and west Mediterranean) on the other hand,<br />

Figure 1.<br />

International<br />

Waterbird Census<br />

(IWC) Population<br />

Index [15] show<strong>in</strong>g<br />

the trend between<br />

1988/1990 and 2007<br />

of the two flyway<br />

populations of<br />

Eurasian spoonbills<br />

found <strong>in</strong> Europe.<br />

187

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