The northern wheatear, a character species of barren landscapes

Abstract

The northern wheatear’s (Oenanthe oenanthe) distribution area extends from the northern hemisphere from the Canadian Arctic through much of Eurasia to Alaska. It lives in open, rocky landscapes. Its annual migration route, especially between the North American breeding areas and the African overwintering sites, is one of the most remarkable round-trip migratory journeys of all songbirds worldwide. In Germany, however, as with many other bird species in our cultural landscape, a continual decline in number of the wheatears has been observed throughout the last decades. By now, it is acutely threatened by extinction. It suffers from the loss of open, nutrient-poor habitats due to nitrogen input, intensification or abandonment of use, as well as from the loss of suitable nesting site structures with caveties like burrows and crevices. Apart from high mountain regions and some coastal habitats, most of the current populations are limited to small-scale special locations such as gravel pits, abandoned quarries, spoil heaps or urban wasteland. Important refuges are former military training areas and post-mining landscapes. Here, the wheatears’ lively behaviour can be watched well when the birds rear their offspring in fixed territories on old bunkers, stacks of deadwood or piles of stones from May to July. Concrete conservation measures in “Döberitzer Heide” nature reserve and in other protected areas show that it is possible to stabilize regional populations of the wheatear if cairns are offered as nesting sites and if extensively used open land is preserved nearby. Since providing new nesting opportunities does not even require great effort, this is strongly recommended for imitation in order to stop the decline in number of this remarkable species.