Directive 79/409/CEE on Wild Birds— often known as the BIRD Directive — was adopted in 1979 in response to the alarming situation of bird populations in Europe and the obvious need for Community-level action to improve their status. Indeed:

 

• the total numbers of many bird species of the European Community were strongly declining;
• the number of bird species was diminishing in many regions of the European Community
• migratory bird species move from region to region in the course of their annual cycle.

The directive provides a general system of protection for all species of naturally occurring birds. Its implementation is monitored with the assistance of the ORNIS Committee, set up to adapt the directive to technical and scientific progress. The ORNIS Data Base is a tool that was constituted to facilitate the task of the committee by collecting biological data useful to the implementation of the directive.

This web presentation includes:

• a brief summary of the BIRD Directive's main features;

a description of the ORNIS Data Base; a selection of data, extracted from the data base, representative of the fields most often used for implementation needs.

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