Thelittle bustard (Tetrax tetrax) has been declaredBird of the Year 2017by SEO / BirdLife, a scientific and conservation society that fights to improve the status of this species,typical of agricultural environments. Birds present in farm fieldsare among the most threatened in the Iberian Peninsulaand, within them, the little bustard is one of the worst stops, sinceits population has halved in the last ten years. If you follow this progression, this little bustard weighing between 700 and 900 grams will come dangerously close to extinction.
The little bustard once inhabited many regions of the world, from western Europe and northwestern Africa to the steppes of central Asia, buttoday it has already become extinct in many countries. In Africa barely a small colony survives in Morocco, andin Europe only birds remain in Spain, Portugal, France, Sardinia and southern Russia. In our country it is, along with Russia and Kazakhstan, where the most important communities of this unique bird survive.
The little bustard hasinconspicuous brown plumage that helps camouflagein thecereal fields and dry grasslandsthat constitute their habitat.In spring, males shed their feathersto a showy black and white mix that can be seen visually from a long distance. Dressed in gala, they move to the cantaderos, as the spaces where the males of certain birds come to court the females are called. During courtship, male little busts combine kicks on the ground, vowel calls, and flutter jumps that produce a peculiar hiss caused by the presence of a shorter feather on the wing and which gives the species its name, similarly called in Catalan –sisó– and in Portuguese –sisão–.
For the executive director of SEO / BirdLife, Asunción Ruiz, “it is one of the most emblematic birds of the Iberian Peninsula and it needs help. Common in the fields of our grandparents, its presence has been reduced and our children may never unfortunately, along with other birds such as the quail or the turtle dove, their situation is an example of the precarious reality that the countryside lives. “
Through the SACRE common bird monitoring program, SEO experts follow the joint evolution of the populations of 25 species associated with agricultural environments and have seen a decrease in the number of specimens of 23% between 1998 and 2015. Four species from among they are in a particularly worrying situation of decline: the common quail, the gray shrike, the yellow bunting and the little bustard . Hence, the little bustard has been classified as ‘vulnerable’ in the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species and in the Red List of Birds of Europe.
The demographic decline of the little bustard and other species typical of cultivated fields can be attributed to the destruction or transformation of their habitats – cereal fields and pastures – due to intensive agricultural practices or the abandonment of crops , disappearance of boundaries and fallows, substitution of rainfed fields by olive trees, almond trees, vineyards or irrigated land, and the increase in pesticides, which drastically reduce the populations of small invertebrates and plants that birds need to feed themselves and raise their young. Also among the causes of the disappearance of birds are accidents caused by agricultural machinery, collisions with fences and power lines, illegal hunting, abuses, and the construction of roads and housing estates.
What can we do for the little bustard? Citizen collaboration in agricultural areas is key when implementing conservation measures. SEO urges people to report dead or injured specimens and circumstances involving the destruction of habitat, especially during the breeding season, and to participate in SEO / BirdLife bird monitoring programs to learn more about this and others. species. It is also important to choose biodiversity- friendly products in the shopping cart.
Photo credit: © Tatavasco Images
