Spotted Flycatcher Appeal

One of our most treasured songbirds, the Spotted Flycatcher, is disappearing. Once considered a common garden nesting species, the Spotted Flycatcher is now a bird that many people are willing to travel a long way to see.

Breeding Bird Survey data show a decline in the breeding population of 39% between 1995 and 2016, part of a staggering longer term decline of 87% since 1970.

The results of our initial research indicate that more Spotted Flycatchers are dying during the first year of their lives and that this increased mortality is likely to be behind the population decline. 

How your donation will be used

Spotted Flycatcher. Photograph by Jamie MacArthur

Funds raised through this appeal will enable BTO scientists to use a combination of the latest tracking devices and the support of local volunteers to follow individual birds as they migrate away from their breeding sites. This will help us to identify their wintering grounds and the areas that the birds use as stop-over sites en route.

From this we can begin to uncover how events at different stages of the birds’ annual cycle could be impacting on their population.

By donating today, you can help us pinpoint why Spotted Flycatchers are dying, so we’ll stand a good chance of addressing the alarming declines that we have charted over the last 50 years.

Any surplus funds raised from this appeal will be used to further our general charitable purposes.