© Marcel Burkhardt
Winter visitors
With its many lakes and rivers, Switzerland is an important wintering site for waterbirds. Accordingly, population and distribution monitoring during the winter focuses on this group. For decades, waterbirds have been counted twice every winter on all important sections of rivers and lakes. Switzerland has an international responsibility for several species. Many other species that are not dependent on waterbodies are surveyed via the project “Monitoring rare breeding and visiting birds”, as are migrants.
Projects
Further analyses
In Birds of Switzerland, you can find the results of the waterbird census for individual species and the changes in waterbird numbers.
Detailed results of the waterbird census are available here as Excel files:
- Overall Swiss population of all species from 1967 to 2023 (January) and from 1991 to 2022 (November).
- Number of individuals per species and site: season 2022/2023
- Proportion of overall Swiss population in reserves of international importance: season 2022/2023
- Monthly population numbers in each reserve of international importance: season 2022/2023
Publications
- van Turnhout, C., K. Koffijberg, E. van Winden, C. Dronneau, C. Frauli, N. Strebel, G. Vossebelt, J. Wahl & M. van Roomen (2022): Long-term population trends of wintering waterbirds in the international Rhine Valley indicate varying effects of river ecosystem rehabilitation. Ornithol. Beob. 119: 330-347.
Internet links
- An overview of all species found in Switzerland and their species categories is available here: www.vogelwarte.ch/id (available in German, French or Italian). Find more on recording at: www.ornitho.ch/instructions.
- Our recording platform www.ornitho.ch provides information on the occurrence of waterbirds and their duration of stay in Switzerland and neighbouring regions.
- The related app “NaturaList” (for Android devices) is available in the Google Play Store and in the App Store. Instructions can be found here.
- International Waterbird Census IWC