Multiyear monitoring of bird communities in chlorpyrifos‐treated orchards in Spain and the United Kingdom: Spatial and temporal trends in species composition, abundance, and site fidelity

The relationship between agricultural practices and the welfare of wild birds has gained increased attention over the last decades. To assess the potential effects of chlorpyrifos on the bird community, a multiyear, multisite monitoring program was carried out in treated cider orchards (in the United Kingdom) and treated citrus orchards (in Spain). Constant‐effort mist netting was used over several consecutive years in the United Kingdom (2012–2014) and Spain (2010–2012). The general structure of the bird community and the presence of breeding species were analyzed. Twelve and 11 bird species (out of 81 and 45 trapped) in Spain and the United Kingdom, respectively, exceeded the 2% dominance value. For a selection of 6 species in citrus and 4 in cider orchards, N‐mixture models were fitted to the number of trapped birds. The abundance of most species was strongly and significantly affected by seasonality. No species showed any indication of reduction in population size over the years. The results of this extensive field program support the indications that chlorpyrifos spray applications present a low risk to the bird community over the years. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:616–629. © 2018 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.