Checklist of Baltic Sea Macro-species - IOW

5. Checklist documentation and distribution
data for Baltic Sea breeding bird species
The waterbird expert team focussed first on birds
breeding in Baltic Sea marine or coastal areas. This
resulted in 56 species being included in the checklist
for Baltic breeding birds. For one species – the
lesser black-backed gull – there are two subspecies
in the Baltic Sea area (Larus fuscus fuscus and L. f.
intermedius), which have been recorded separately.
Thus, 57 taxa occur on the checklist. The number
of species found breeding in each area can be
found in Figure 12.
Denmark
Germany /
Schleswig-
Holstein
Germany /
Mecklenburg-
Western
Pomerania
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
46
Russia /
Kaliningrad
30
Russia /
St. Petersburg
45
Finland
50
Sweden
52
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Figure 12. Number of Baltic Sea breeding bird
species per Baltic Sea sub-basin.
5.1 Expert team
Chair: Christof Herrmann (Germany)
Vladimir Fedorov (Russia), Martti Hario (Finland),
Jan Kieckbusch (Germany), Markku Mikkola-Roos
(Finland), Lidia Sternik (Poland), Antra Stipniece
(Latvia), Ole Thorup (Denmark), Martin Tjernberg
(Sweden).
5.2 Taxonomy
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The bird taxonomy follows the World Register of
Marine Species (WoRMS, www.marinespecies.org
November 2011).
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5.3 Defining parameters
The checklist includes all species breeding in the
Baltic Sea area (Figure 12) with a distinct relationship
to the marine or coastal environment. Species
included in the checklist were required to fulfil the
following criteria:
a) ‘True’ marine or coastal bird species, i.e. species
which breed exclusively at the coast or only
exceptionally inland (e.g. sandwich tern Sterna
sandvicensis, turnstone Arenaria interpres, eider
Somateria mollissima).
b) Species which breed mainly at the coast, or
reach higher densities, or form larger colonies at
the coast compared to inland (e.g., cormorant
Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, white-tailed eagle
Haliaeetus albicilla).
c) Species which are characteristic inhabitants of
typical coastal habitats such as coastal bays, salt
meadows, dunes, skerries (e.g., lapwing Vanellus
vanellus, meadow pipit Anthus pratensis,
northern shoveler Anas clypeata, osprey Pandion
haliaetus).
Species for which ‘b’ or ‘c’ is true only for some
Baltic regions, are included in the checklist.
Different subspecies are treated separately. This
applies to the two subspecies of the lesser blackbacked
gull breeding in the Baltic Sea area (Larus
fuscus fuscus and L. f. intermedius), but also to the
dunlin (Calidris alpina alpina and C. a. schinzii) and
ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula hiaticula and Ch.
h. tundrae). In the latter cases, only the subspecies
Calidris alpina schinzii and Charadrius hiaticula hiaticula,
respectively, have been included, since the
other two subspecies do not breed on the Baltic
Sea coast.
5.4 Distribution
The reference area for the Baltic Sea breeding bird
checklist is the entire territory of the Baltic Sea
riparian states (Figure 13). However, for Denmark
and Germany / Schleswig-Holstein the coastal zone
of the North Sea has been excluded. In the case of
Germany, only the Baltic Federal states Schleswig-
Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
have been considered, and for Russia only the St
Petersburg and Kaliningrad regions.
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