The Birds of Cyprus An Annotated Checklist

About this book

This guide follows two previous editions written by Peter Flint and Peter Stewart in respectively 1983 and 1992 (which was volume 6 in the BOU Checklist series).

There has been annual recording and publication of bird records on Cyprus for more than 65 years, with the effort increasing in both scale and area of the island covered. Though one would expect the number of recorded birds to increase, this has only happened for some species while for many others the reverse is true. The dramatic decline in breeding birds was already established by 1992, but research for this edition uncovered similar decreases in numbers of passage migrants and winter visitors, likely due to a combination of climate and habitat changes affecting the island and the wider world. This matches patterns observed in nearby countries and general population declines of European breeding populations. This edition details the past changes and provides a baseline against which the inevitable future changes can be measured. It contains records up to 10 March 2023, with the addition of a few later significant records.

Of the many sources used, notable are publications of the island's past and present bird societies, and online databases such as eBird, for recent records. Others resources include the OSME Region List and the IOC World Bird List (both updated twice yearly), the EURING Cyprus databases, the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2 and the online Birds of the World. As in the previous editions, decisions on the status of species and the validity of records are the authors' own, although for records this century they have followed the decision of the Cyprus rare birds committees and the KUŞKOR equivalent in northern Cyprus.

In this edition, in addition to recoveries of ringed birds, the authors have included results from birds fitted with electronic tracking devices. These results have had to be searched for in the scientific literature and probably not all relevant records have been retrieved. However, the ones that have been included reveal fascinating insights into the origins, destinations, journeys, and sometimes fates of individual migrants.

Earlier prefaces emphasized the need for more research on breeding biology, distribution, habitat, population sizes, and densities of breeding birds. For many species, we now have a more complete picture but, as evident from this book, there are still large gaps in the knowledge of many iconic breeding species, including some endemics and near endemics. The systematic list reveals gaps in our knowledge that might be usefully investigated in the future.

Contents

Preface   5
Acknowledgements   7
Authors' biographies   11
Authors' contributions   12
List of tables   13
List of figures   13
List of plates   14

Introduction   17
    History of Cyprus   17
    History of Cyprus ornithology   17
    Geology   28
    Geography   29
    Climate   31
    Vegetation   33
    Environmental changes and impacts   35
    Overview of the avifauna   39
    Breeding   39
    Migration and movements   44
    Changes in status   53
    Conservation   60
Systematic List   66
    General abbreviations   66
    Museum abbreviations   67
    Observers and collectors   68
    Presentation of the species accounts   71
    Species accounts   75
    Addendum   409
    Unconfirmed species   410
Appendices   414
    1. Gazetteer of Cyprus place names   414
    2. List of plant names mentioned in the text   427
    3. Biometrics   429
    4. Sites of ornithological interest   433

References   455
Index   479

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