SOCA: Tracking of birds common to Andorra

The study of the group of birds in the long term allows to infer what has been the evolution of the territory over the years, which are the areas that suffer most from the consequences from the passage of time, sensitivity to changes in certain habitats, the effect of impacts not considered ...

It serves to develop an indicator of the health status of wildlife and ecosystems, to provide information for designing environmental management policies.

The so-called common birds are monitored, so that the data obtained is representative of a part of the territory and their habitats. Common birds are recognizable by the local population, allowing society to be involved in scientific monitoring.

The objectives of the SOCA program are:

• Obtain data over time on the populations of common birds in the Principality of Andorra.
• Study the temporal trends of the common bird populations of Andorra.
• Determine the conservation status of the different species of birds and their habitats in Andorra.
• Acquire and study data from all the itineraries considered as priority, in order to obtain a representation of the Andorran territory.
• Contribute with Andorran data to the European Bird Census Council, coordinator of the Pan European Common Bird Census Scheme project.

The project began in 2011 and currently has 24 active transects, 75% of which are a priority.

You can download the results report below:

Annual report 2021.

History of previous years.

[1] J. Nicolau, C. Pladevall (2018), Guia dels ocells d'Andorra, Monografies del CENMA, 181 pp.

[2] C. Pladevall, “Trends and Indicators of Andorran Birds", Bird Numbers 2019 – 21st Conference of the European Bird Census Council, a Évora, Portugal.

[3] A. Lehikoinen, L. Brotons, (...) C. Pladevall (...), “Declining population trends of European mountain birds”. Global Change Biology 25:2, pp. 577-588, doi 10.1111/gcb.14522.