Bird migration and conservation clues in robin and Turtle dove genomes

December 21, 2018, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The European robin and Turtle dove have had their genetic codes sequenced and assembled for the first time by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The genomes, completed today (21 December) will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches controlling bird migration and give insight into the magneto receptors that help robins 'see' the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation. The Turtle dove genome will help conservation efforts to save one of the UK's fastest declining bird species.

European robins live throughout Europe, Russia and western Siberia. While most British robins reside in the UK over winter, some birds will migrate to southern Europe to overwinter in warmer climates. Simultaneously in winter, migrant robins from Scandinavia, continental Europe and Russia head to the UK to avoid the harsh weather back home.

Turtle doves also migrate, visiting their breeding grounds in Europe and spending the winter months in Africa. However, since 1995, 94 per cent of Turtle doves have been lost and there are fewer than 5,000 breeding pairs left in the UK. The Turtle dove is the UK's fastest-declining bird species, and as a result, they are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Migration patterns and behaviours vary across species, but also within species. Similarly, environmental pressures such as disease and limited food resources affect various bird species differently. To fully understand the genetic components of complex traits, such as migration and breeding, the whole genetic code must be read and analysed.

The European robin and Turtle dove's genomes were read by the Sanger Institute and its partners, in celebration of Sanger's 25th anniversary.

Collaborators at the University of Lincoln sent robin and Turtle dove samples to the Sanger Institute near Cambridge. The sequencing teams extracted DNA from the samples and used PacBio SMRT Sequencing technology to generate the first reference genomes for robins and Turtle doves.

The European robin genome will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches underpinning migration, which tell robins when to leave and where to go. The robin's role as a model of bird migration will help in understanding the magneto receptors in birds' eyes that allow them to use the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation and also unpick migratory behaviour in other bird species.

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FKNK 'official' filmed shooting protected turtle dove, BirdLife says

BirdLife footage shows an official on the FKNK's Miżieb sub-committee shooting at a protected turtle dove during the spring season • FKNK says it will take action when it has proof of wrongdoing from the courts or the police

24 April 2018, 12:57pm
by Maria Pace

BirdLife Malta today released exclusive footage which shows an FKNK "official" breaking the law during this year’s spring hunging season.

In a statement, the NGO said that the video shows Lawrence Vella, a Federation for Hunting and Conservation official on the hunting federation’s sub-committee for Miżieb, shooting at a protected turtle dove while hunting at Miżieb.

BirdLife said that the the area was not normally associated with quail, the only legally huntable species during the spring hunging season.

The footage was filmed on 16 April and at one point, according to the bird conservation group, Vella can be seen standing up, raising his gun and shooting at a bird three times consecutively, with the bird clearly seen in the footage falling out of the sky.

Read on  

50 disused quarries turned into wildlife habitats to help Britain's endangered birds

 Sarah Knapton, science editor 

27 JANUARY 2018 • 5:05PM

A conservation project to turn 50 quarries into nature reserves by 2020 has been completed two years early and is already saving endangered species, like the turtle dove.

In 2010, the RSPB joined forces with building materials supplier CEMEX to rejuvenate dozens of disused quarries.

And within fewer than eight years, 1,000 hectares of grassland, woodland, heath and wetland has been created which is helping rare and unusual species to flourish including 50 ‘at risk’ species.

Threatened birds which have moved into the conservation areas include turtle doves, choughs and twites, all of which have seen huge falls in numbers in the past decades.

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s director of conservation said: “Nature is in trouble but by restoring or creating habitats we can often reverse the population declines of threatened species while keeping common species common. We all have a role to play in rising to this challenge: government, business and civil society.

“In 2010 the RSPB and CEMEX set an ambitious goal of restoring 1,000 hectares of land over a decade and in less than eight years we have met that target.

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Maldon turtle dove conservation zone set up

2 December 2017

A new conservation zone has been created to protect the turtle dove, one of Britain's fastest-declining birds.

The zone is being set up in Maldon, Essex, to help the species increase.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in the past 20 years, the UK had lost more than 94% of its breeding turtle doves.

In the new zone, farmers, businesses and conservation organisations will work together to create the breeding and feeding habitats the birds need.

More than half the UK's remaining turtle doves breed in East Anglia, with "hotspots" in parts of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

Loss of food from the countryside was behind the species' decline, the RSPB said.

Turtle doves eat the fallen seeds of arable plants such as fumitory and knotgrass that are usually thought of as weeds.

These foods had become more scarce with the increased use of herbicides and the intensification of farming, the charity said.

As migrating birds, turtle doves also face threats and pressures outside the UK as they cross the Sahara Desert to survive the winter in Africa.

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Action taken to prevent decline of European turtle doves, which still breed in Suffolk

13:00 30 October 2015

Edmund Crosthwaite

A bird immortalised in one of the most famous Christmas tunes has been placed on the list of species considered to be facing extinction.

East Anglia is one of the last places in the UK where European turtle doves continue to breed but has now been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, which documents the conservation status of plants and animals worldwide.

Turtle doves were already a UK Red List species due to the loss of more than nine out of ten birds in this country over the last 50 years.

Previously they were in the ‘least concern’ category but have now been upgraded to ‘vulnerable’.

Now conservation organisations in the Operation Turtle Dove partnership are working hard to secure a future for them.

John Sharpe, the RSPB’s conservation manager in Eastern England, said: “The news of the increased threat of extinction to turtle doves is not wholly unexpected, but it does throw into sharp relief the dire situation these birds face and the urgency of joined-up conservation efforts across their range if we are to save them.

Read on …

How tracking one turtle dove could help save its whole species

Published by surfbirds on August 12, 2015 courtesy of BirdLife International, surfbirds archive

In a first for UK science, a European Turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) has been tracked by satellite tagging as it travelled 11,200km from Suffolk in England to Mali, Africa, and back again.

Flying mostly under the cover of darkness, the bird, named Titan, flew 500-700 kilometres a night across epic landscapes such as the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Cádiz, visiting Senegal, Morocco and Spain en route. His maximum speed was 60km per hour.

Titan was fitted with a small, lightweight satellite tag in Suffolk in summer 2014 by the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. Since then, Titan is playing a vital role in solving a serious conservation problem: how to prevent the rapid loss of his species from across Europe.

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VIDEO: East Anglian turtle dove helps scientists solve migration mystery of UK fastest declining bird

08:59Thursday 25 June 2015

The migration route of a UK breeding turtle dove has, for the first time, been revealed by the RSPB – providing valuable data in the conservation fight to help save the species from UK extinction.

Last August, the RSPB fitted a small, light-weight satellite tag to a turtle dove from Suffolk before it embarked on its mammoth migration journey. In a UK science first, the RSPB was able to track Titan, the tagged turtle dove, on his 5,600km migration route from Suffolk to Mali, and back again, all in real time.

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Warblers and turtle doves join RSPB list of birds at risk of dying out

Bad weather and loss of habitat blamed as more breeding native species are at risk of extinction

Jamie Doward and Atoosa Gitiforoz

The Observer, Saturday 30 August 2014 21.21 BST

Any true love who wants to give their significant other two turtle doves to celebrate the second day of the 12 Days of Christmas may soon be looking for an alternative gift.

In a move that will dismay ornithologists and poets alike, the bird, immortalised in verse by Shakespeare and Wordsworth, could shortly find itself on the near 100-strong list of the rarest birds in the UK as compiled by the RSPB's rare breeding birds panel – a sign that its numbers are plummeting by such a degree that there are fears it could become extinct in the UK within a decade.

The list compiled by the panel, now in its 40th year, is based on sightings by dedicated bird watchers who provide the society with a wealth of information that is used to track the fortunes of different species over time and is the envy of wildlife organisations around the world.

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Why the Maltese massacre is bad news for UK's threatened bird species

By Western Morning News | Posted: May 02, 2014

By Liam Creedon

A Turtle Dove injured by hunters

Photo of Golden Oriole, who was a victim of illegal hunting.

Photo of Hobby bird, who was a victim of illegal hunting

Cape Turtle Doves

Thousands of migrating birds are being killed at one of Britain’s favourite holiday destinations. We explain why this is not just a disaster for Malta but bad news for some of the UK’s most threatened species

The rocky island of Malta, much-loved tourist destination for British holidaymakers, nestling amid the startling blue Mediterranean Sea, is possibly the worst place in the world to be a bird.

For this small, barren outcrop is a killing ground on an unprecedented scale.

Thousands of birds, some of which may be migrating back to British back gardens, are blasted from the skies each year by the highest concentration of registered hunters in Europe. Even those lucky enough to avoid the guns run the gauntlet of being illegally trapped and harvested in hard-to-see ‘mist nets’ slung between bushes.

Trigger-happy hunters are responsible for this indiscriminate killing spree, during a three-week period in spring, with one of our rarest birds, the Turtle Dove, singled out as a key target. The dove has declined by 95% in the UK since the 1970s and there are real fears it will become extinct as a British breeding bird.

Read on

Two Durham bird watchers among quartet embarking on 300-mile walk in name of the turtle dove

5:06pm Wednesday 26th March 2014 in News

By Matt Westcott

IT'S called Dove Step and it will involve four bird watchers walking 300 miles to the North-East.

The idea of Jonny Rankin, originally from High Shincliffe, Durham, but now living in Bury St Edmonds, he along with friends Andrew Goodrick, originally from Meadowfield, Durham, Tristan Reid and Robert Yaxley will embark on the trek, which starts on March 29 and ends at RSPB Saltholme on Teesside on April 10, in the name of Turtle Dove.

All have been raising cash for Operation Turtle Dove for the past three years - a campaign launched by conservation charities to save the European species.

Continued

Amateur wildlife watchers help with search for one of the UK’s most threatened birds

Conservationists trying to save the UK’s most threatened farmland bird have been given a helping hand by members of the public who’ve been calling a special hotline to report sightings.

Photo: Wikipedia

Since Operation Turtle Dove was launched by the RSPB, Conservation Grade, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Natural England in May, the hotline has had 429 calls reporting the elusive bird.

Highlights include two unusual sightings on the Welsh coast, an area not usually associated with turtle doves; a B&B, frequented by visitors to the RSPB’s Snettisham nature reserve, where a pair of turtle doves nested in the conifers outside; and various calls from people who thought the ‘purring’ sound turtle doves make was coming from a group of frogs.

Norfolk came top as the county with the most reported turtle dove sightings (112), second was Suffolk (69), closely followed by Cambridgeshire (61), with Essex (32), Kent (29), and Lincolnshire (20) coming fourth, fifth and sixth.

Alison Gardner from Operation Turtle Dove, said: ‘It’s great that we’ve already had so many people supporting Operation Turtle Dove and looking out for these birds.

Continued:  http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/blog/2012/09/13/amateur-wildlife-watchers-help-with-search-for-one-of-the-uks-most-threatened-birds/

More turtle dove information:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/t/turtledove/index.aspx

http://operationturtledove.org/