How they choose us
The Migratory Bird Day was celebrated throughout the world. As much as 70 to 80 percent of Ukrainian avian species belong to this category
“Almost all birds are back in Ukraine already. There are species that arrive very late, for example, the shrub warbler, and, maybe, some individuals of these species are still flying in, but generally, everyone has arrived,” head of the Ukrainian Ringing Center at the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Anatolii Poluda tells The Day. Altogether, according to the expert, out of 420 to 440 avian species that live in Ukraine, 70 to 80 percent are migratory. Interestingly, some of those birds we used to regard as sedentary can be found among the feathered travelers, for example, the great tit. “We used to see them all year round, but some of these birds, especially young ones, do real migrations, sometimes as far as a thousand or more kilometers away. We see rooks throughout the year, too, but it is a migratory species,” Poluda explains.
However, rooks increasingly winter in their birthplaces. “Rooks hardly wintered in Ukraine 150 years ago, but they are becoming more sedentary by the year. Even 30 years ago, our rooks flew to Central European countries, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, while 100 years ago, they wintered in France. Over the century, their migration routes shortened and they increasingly stay at their birthplaces to winter,” the researcher tells.
According to the expert, this is due to global warming and intensifying human activity. “We now have many landfills and illegal dumps available for birds to find food. Despite cold and heavy snowfalls, birds can make it through the winter, and it makes no sense for them to waste energy on risky 1,000-kilometer-long flights,” the ringing center’s head says.
Ducks, too, remain at home in winter, including mallards. “Quite a lot of them winter on the Dnipro. Mallards need ice-free water, and hydropower stations as well as human economic activity in general help them to get it,” Poluda says. According to him, more birds remain at home quite unexpectedly. “Warblers are insectivorous birds who weigh 10 grams and are migratory, but there is evidence of their wintering grounds in Odesa, and this year in Lutsk. Birds constitute a dynamic system that is constantly developing,” he says.
There are those who choose not to return back if changes have occurred or their nesting places have been destroyed. “We should mention here the aquatic warbler, an internationally red-listed species which is threatened with extinction. This bird lives in sedge marshes, which are almost extinct in Ukraine due to reclamation, creation of reservoirs and drainage. Its habitat area decreased by the factor of tens, and the avian population followed,” the expert explains.
It is worth mentioning that Ukraine is also a wintering place for many birds. The mistletoe berries-eating waxwings, northern ducks, goldeneyes, many passerines, horned larks and birds of prey, such as rough-legged buzzard, fly in to winter here. The wintering grounds preservation is important for these birds’ survival, too.
The Migratory Bird Day is held under the auspices of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species. According to Poluda, it would be better to celebrate it at the beginning of April, when the birds are just returning. It would allow families to go outdoors and observe the return of the birds, such as geese and cranes.
