The Migration Atlas of SEO/BirdLife analyzes 342 species with more than 10 million records and reveals how the routes of migratory birds connecting Spain to other territories are changing.
Migratory birds are altering their routes because of our actions, and that is something that concerns and affects us. SEO/BirdLife presents today, April 13, at the Natural Sciences Museum of Madrid a Migration Atlas that was compiled with the support of MITECO.
In it, variations in the routes of several birds due to climate change are documented. This tool allows us to understand the modifications that black kites, swallows, and storks have made in their movements.
Scientific ringing, satellite-tracking tools, and new GPS systems allow us to know with precision which routes are chosen by each species, where they decide to stop to rest and feed, where they breed, and to understand the reason for changes in both the duration and the routes selected for their journeys.
The article explains how this interactive platform, accessible to anyone via its website and which automatically updates data as soon as it receives them from the different tracking sources, not only provides information to the public but can also be used to carry out territorial management that is less invasive and more resilient.
All About the New SEO/BirdLife Migration Atlas
On World Bird Day, SEO/BirdLife has just presented what is one of the organization’s most ambitious scientific projects in recent decades. It is the ‘Migration Atlas: Spatial Behavior and Temporal Dynamics of Birds in Spain’, the largest reference work on bird movements at the national scale and which received collaboration from MITECO.
Asunción Ruiz, who is the executive director of SEO/BirdLife, noted: “Birds are showing us how the planet is changing. This Migration Atlas will allow us to understand those changes and, above all, to make the best decisions to protect nature and our future. Bird migrations are one of nature’s great spectacles, but also an extraordinary source of knowledge.
Following their routes helps us understand the state of our ecosystems and the world we are building. We need the best science to serve public decision-making. Knowing birds’ migratory routes helps us plan the territory better, protect biodiversity, and build a development that is compatible with life.
“Birds connect continents, and this Migration Atlas connects knowledge and action to protect nature. Birds show us the way, and this atlas helps us not to lose it,” Ruíz concluded.
100 Years of Information
The Migration Atlas brings together more than a century of scientific information, analyzing in detail data on migration and all movements of 342 bird species that occupy Spanish territory at some point in their life cycle.
Its results rely on the information managed by the Bird Migration Center (CMA) from 1905 to 2025, a database comprising 10,377,716 records corresponding to 487 taxa, obtained thanks to the sustained work of thousands of ringers and collaborators over more than a century.
This new work fills one of the main knowledge gaps regarding Spanish avifauna: the distribution and movements of birds between the breeding and wintering seasons, as well as the movements they undertake within each phase of their life cycle. The publication presented today by SEO/BirdLife addresses for the first time and in an integrated manner the phenomenon of migration and mobility of birds that at some point stop in Spanish territory.
The work also represents an important conceptual leap compared to traditional atlases, since, in addition to the print edition and PDF format, SEO/BirdLife has developed an interactive web platform that is directly connected to the Bird Migration Center’s database.
Thanks to this system, information will be permanently updated as new ringing, recaptures of birds, and results from each tracking are incorporated. Users will be able to consult in the Migration Atlas the different maps, tables and graphs tailored to their needs, obtaining information filtered by concrete time periods, seasons of the year, sexes, ages, or types of records, which constitutes an unprecedented advance for this type of scientific publications. The web-based interactive version includes nearly 500 species with ringing and recapture data in the national territory.
“This new Migration Atlas, in addition to detailing species movements through numerous maps, includes chapters that explain the spectacular phenomenon of migration, how it is changing over time, how it originated and how birds adapt to new global conditions.
Furthermore, its publication in a dynamic web format will permanently allow incorporating advances as they occur, always with the most up-to-date information,” explains Juan Carlos del Moral, coordinator of the monitoring area at SEO/BirdLife.
The organization highlights that the Migration Atlas system is tremendously innovative compared with traditional atlases, which only provide point-in-time information for a fixed multi-year period, not updatable and without flexibility to design queries according to user needs (specific year periods, seasons, sexes, ages, only ringing, only recaptures, both and all possible combinations among all options).
Bird Migration and Tracking
What matters is that, beyond its documentary value, this Migration Atlas offers an unprecedented view of one of nature’s most fascinating phenomena: Each year, millions of birds travel thousands of kilometers across continents, seas, deserts, and mountain ranges to complete their life cycles, and many of them make stops on Spanish soil.
These migrations respond to complex and distinct internal mechanisms of orientation and adaptation that allow these birds to take advantage of the best environmental conditions to feed, reproduce, and survive.
The new Migration Atlas shows how these movements unfold, what their main routes are, and how they are changing in response to environmental and climatic transformations that the planet is undergoing.
The publication also reflects the extraordinary evolution of the tools used to study bird movements. Scientific ringing is a technique that has been used for more than a century and constitutes the fundamental basis for understanding the connections between breeding, migration, and wintering areas.
Through millions of records accumulated with this system of tracking bird populations over decades, it has been possible to reconstruct migratory routes, identify key areas for numerous species, and learn essential aspects of their biology and conservation.
To this historical information are now added the possibilities offered by new tracking technologies. Radio telemetry, automated detection networks, and especially satellite transmitters are tools that have decades of operation and are complemented by the current and most modern GPS/GSM transmitters. All of them allow recording bird movements with precision, frequency, and a number of variables never before reached.
These systems show complete routes, stopover areas, travel speed, and birds’ responses to factors such as climate, land-use changes, or habitat alteration.
The Migration Atlas’ digital platform also incorporates information from SEO/BirdLife’s Migra Program, which allows visualizing the complete journeys of numerous species tracked by remote monitoring devices, and provides interactive videos in which users can interact with each species’ map by selecting ages, sexes, particular individuals from certain regions, and a long etc.
Changes in Birds Since 1905
The main conclusion of the Migration Atlas is that the effects of climate change are impacting the biology and behavior of birds and that some species such as the barn swallow, black kite, booted eagle, or the white stork are shortening or altering their trips.
The case of the white stork, an emblematic species of our country, is particularly representative of how environmental alterations transform a species’ habits. Thus, while spring-born white storks continue to migrate to winter in the African Sahel, adult individuals prefer to stay in Spain for most of the year and do not cross the Strait of Gibraltar as a consequence of milder winters caused by global warming.
The lack of intense cold that has occurred in recent decades has also affected the wintering data of many aquatic birds that traditionally arrived in our territory from central and northern Europe.
Migration is a biological process that has been adapting over centuries, but it undoubtedly is affected by the transformation of the territory we humans cause, causing changes in the biology of species that are not natural. In this regard, the draining of key wetlands implies extra efforts for birds, as they are forced to lengthen their journeys without stopping to rest and regain energy during their migratory routes between continents, something that can condition the survival of these species.
But changes are also visible in the evolution of the tools used to study bird movements. The reality is that new technologies are facilitating the collection and availability of large volumes of previously unseen records. Thanks to the system used by this Migration Atlas, all that new information being generated can be updated immediately and continuously on its website.
Conservation Tools Make the Difference
The Migration Atlas is not only a work of scientific outreach; its aim is to become a reference tool that aids planning and land management. Precisely identifying migratory corridors, resting zones, and/or feeding and wintering areas will enable better decision-making in conservation, infrastructure installation, energy development, and regional planning.
The information gathered in the Migration Atlas will facilitate the protection of spaces especially sensitive for birds, helping to reduce risks associated with habitat fragmentation and to promote more sustainable management of natural resources. The interactive contents, monographs, maps, and audiovisual materials available in the web version will also provide a valuable reference tool for administrations, researchers, environmental managers, and the public interested in biodiversity knowledge and conservation.
With this publication of the Migration Atlas, SEO/BirdLife reaffirms its commitment to generating applied scientific knowledge for conservation and makes available to society an innovative tool aimed at improving the protection of birds and the ecosystems on which they depend.
The launch of the Migration Atlas will take place on Tuesday, October 13 at 17:00 in the Auditorium of the Natural Sciences Museum of Madrid and can be watched live via this link.
