The goal of nature conservation is to keep common species common, to prevent threatened species from becoming extinct and to ensure that humans continue to benefit from the services that nature provides; such as pollination, clean water, flood protection, a stable climate, recreation and inspiration. By assessing the extinction risk of all 544 wild bird species in Europe, this update to the European Red List shows how we are doing in meeting this ambition by using birds as the most visible and best studied indicators of biodiversity.
The Common kingfishers’ trend varies between countries in its range, with many reporting an unknown direction. Based on the latest data available, this species’ trend appears to still be decreasing, but at a lower rate than in 2015, and not sufficiently rapidly to meet a higher category than Least Concern. This highlights the importance of regular species monitoring, as if new data were gathered on the trends which are currently unknown, this could paint a more accurate picture of the state of the species within the
region.
Photo Stephen Rennie