Bird Population Trends Research Articles

The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?

Bird populations are declining globally with losses recorded in many European breeding birds. Habitat management measures have not resulted in widespread reversal of these declines. We analysed national bird population trends from ten European countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) for which data on individual bird species was freely available online in relation to the species’ nesting strategy (‘ground-nesting’ or ‘other’), Annex I designation (‘designated’ or ‘not designated’) and association with agricultural habitats for breeding (‘associated’ or ‘not associated’). For each country in our dataset, we also broadly categorised the following factors: farming intensity; predator community complexity; and predator control effort. Our results showed additive effects of nesting strategy, designation, and breeding habitats on the likelihood of population decline. Ground-nesting birds were 86 % more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies. Annex I designated species of the Birds Directive were 50 % less likely to decline than non-designated birds. Birds breeding primarily in agricultural habitat were more likely to decline than birds breeding in other habitats, interactively with farming intensity. Homogenous trends across Europe (i.e. trends in two or more countries that were either not declining in all countries or declining in all countries), indicate that the probability of population decline was related to nesting strategy and breeding habitat. Ground-nesting birds were 15.6 times more likely than other birds to have a declining trend across Europe, and birds nesting in agricultural habitats were 17.8 times more likely to decline than birds nesting in other habitats. Our results highlight a widespread challenge, therefore widespread instruments (e.g. legislation, economic policies, agri-environment schemes) will be required to reverse these declines. Ground-nesting species requirements can be complex and multiple strategies will be needed to restore populations including the development of predation management tools.

Population trends are more strongly linked to environmental change and species traits in birds than mammals.

Changes in land use and climate directly impact species populations. Species with divergent characteristics may respond differently to these changes. Therefore, understanding species' responses to environmental changes is fundamental for alleviating biodiversity loss. However, the relationships between land use changes, climate changes, species' intrinsic traits and population changes at different spatial scales have not been tested. In this study, we analysed the effects of land use and climate changes from different time periods and species traits on the population change rates of 2195 bird and mammal populations in 577 species recorded in the Living Planet Database at global, tropical and temperate scales. We hypothesized that both bird and mammal populations will decline owing to climate and land use changes, especially phylogenetically young and small-bodied species. We found that bird population trends were more closely related to environmental changes and phylogenetic age than those of mammals at global and temperate scales. Mammal population trends were not significantly correlated with land use or climate changes but were with longevity at global and temperate scales. Given the divergent responses of bird and mammal populations to these explanatory variables, different conservation strategies should be considered for these taxa and for different regions.

Woody plant encroachment drives population declines in 20% of common open ecosystem bird species.

Grassy ecosystems cover more than 40% of the world's terrestrial surface, supporting crucial ecosystem services and unique biodiversity. These ecosystems have experienced major losses from conversion to agriculture with the remaining fragments threatened by global change. Woody plant encroachment, the increase in woody cover threatening grassy ecosystems, is a major global change symptom, shifting the composition, structure, and function of plant communities with concomitant effects on all biodiversity. To identify generalisable impacts of encroachment on biodiversity, we urgently need broad-scale studies on how species respond to woody cover change. Here, we make use of bird atlas, woody cover change data (between 2007 and 2016) and species traits, to assess: (1) population trends and woody cover responses using dynamic occupancy models; (2) how outcomes relate to habitat, diet and nesting traits; and (3) predictions of future occupancy trends, for 191 abundant, southern African bird species. We found that: (1) 63% (121) of species showed a decline in occupancy, with 18% (34) of species' declines correlated with increasing woody cover (i.e. losers). Only 2% (4) of species showed increasing population trends linked with increased woody cover (i.e. winners); (2) Open habitat specialist, invertivorous, ground nesting birds were the most frequent losers, however, we found no definitive evidence that the selected traits could predict outcomes; and (3) We predict open habitat loser species will take on average 52 years to experience 50% population declines with current rates of encroachment. Our results bring attention to concerning region-wide declining bird population trends and highlight woody plant encroachment as an important driver of bird population dynamics. Importantly, these findings should encourage improved management and restoration of our remaining grassy ecosystems. Furthermore, our findings show the importance of lands beyond protected areas for biodiversity, and the urgent need to mitigate the impacts of woody plant encroachment on bird biodiversity.

The benefits of protected areas for bird population trends may depend on their condition

The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework calls for at least 30% of land and sea to be protected by 2030. Whilst there is growing evidence that protected areas can benefit biodiversity, to achieve the greatest possible gains from their expansion, we must understand how protected area quality impacts upon biodiversity metrics. We used UK BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey data and protected areas condition data from national Common Standards Monitoring, to test whether improving site condition (for which there are UK policy targets) would contribute to stated policy targets to increase species' abundance. After controlling for differences in climate, land cover, and elevation, we found a positive association between the proportion of favourable habitat and bird abundance trends in the UK, while in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined, the positive effect was also significantly greater than in unfavourable habitat. Conversely, we also found a negative effect of proportion of favourable habitat on bird abundance. There was no evidence that these relationships varied between conservation status or many of the traits considered, although there was some evidence that favourable condition was beneficial for habitat specialists, cold-adapted species, and varied by habitat. Our findings suggest that improving the condition of protected areas currently in unfavourable condition, will contribute to nature recovery as measured by species' abundance trends in some circumstances. This also suggests that achieving the “30 by 30” target without ensuring those protected areas are of sufficient quality, may not be sufficient to restore biodiversity.

Fair concordance between Google Trends and Danish ornithologists in the assessment of temporal trends in Danish bird populations highlights the informational value of big data

The ongoing depletion of natural systems and associated biodiversity decline is of growing international concern. Climate change is expected to exacerbate anthropogenic impacts on wild populations. The scale of impact on ecosystems and ecosystem services will be determined by the impact on a multitude of species and functional groups, which due to their biology and numbers are difficult to monitor. The IPCC has argued that surveillance or monitoring is critical and proposed that monitoring systems should be developed, which not only track developments but also function as “early warning systems.” Human populations are already generating large continuous datasets on multiple taxonomic groups through internet searches. These time series could in principle add substantially to current monitoring if they reflect true changes in the natural world. We here examined whether information on internet search frequencies delivered by the Danish population and captured by Google Trends (GT) appropriately informs on population trends in 106 common Danish bird species. We compared the internet search activity with independent equivalent population trend assessments from the Danish Ornithological Society (BirdLife Denmark/DOF). We find a fair concordance between the GT trends and the assessments by DOF. A substantial agreement can be obtained by omitting species without clear temporal trends. Our findings suggest that population trend proxies from internet search frequencies can be used to supplement existing wildlife population monitoring and to ask questions about an array of ecological phenomena, which potentially can be integrated into an early warning system for biodiversity under climate change.

Modeling forest bird population trends at U.S. Army Garrison Pōhakuloa Training Area, Hawaiʻi

Modeling forest bird population trends at U.S. Army Garrison Pōhakuloa Training Area, Hawaiʻi

Mixed population trends inside a California protected area: Evidence from long‐term community science monitoring

Protected areas are one of the most widespread and accepted conservation interventions, yet population trends of species within protected areas are rarely compared with regional trends to gain insight into their effectiveness. Here, we leverage two long‐term community science datasets, finding mixed effects of protected areas on long‐term bird population trends. We analysed 31 years of bird transect data recorded by community volunteers across all major habitats of Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve to determine the population trends for a sample of 66 species. We found that nearly a third of species experienced long‐term declines, and on average, species declined by 12%. Further, we averaged species trends by conservation status and key life history attributes to identify correlates and possible drivers of these trends. Observed increases in some cavity‐nesters and declines of scrub‐associated species suggest that long‐term fire suppression may be a key driver, reshaping bird communities through changes in forest and chaparral structure and composition. Additionally, we compared our results with those of the North American Breeding Bird Survey's Central California Coast region (n = 55 species) to place Jasper Ridge in a broader context. Most species experienced similar directional population trends inside and outside of the preserve and only eight species (14.5%) did better inside this small protected area. Therefore, we must identify relevant management strategies for declining populations and explicitly consider how existing protected areas target and manage each species. Further, this analysis underlines the importance of local and national community science for revealing long‐term bird population trends.

Species-specific ecological traits, phylogeny, and geography underpin vulnerability to population declines for North American birds

Abstract Species declines and extinctions characterize the Anthropocene. Determining species vulnerability to decline, and where and how to mitigate threats, are paramount for effective conservation. We hypothesized that species with shared ecological traits also share threats, and therefore may experience similar population trends. Here, we used a Bayesian modeling framework to test whether phylogeny, geography, and 22 ecological traits predict regional population trends for 380 North American bird species. Groups like blackbirds, warblers, and shorebirds, as well as species occupying Bird Conservation Regions at more extreme latitudes in North America, exhibited negative population trends; whereas groups such as ducks, raptors, and waders, as well as species occupying more inland Bird Conservation Regions, exhibited positive trends. Specifically, we found that in addition to phylogeny and breeding geography, multiple ecological traits contributed to explaining variation in regional population trends for North American birds. Furthermore, we found that regional trends and the relative effects of migration distance, phylogeny, and geography differ between shorebirds, songbirds, and waterbirds. Our work provides evidence that multiple ecological traits correlate with North American bird population trends, but that the individual effects of these ecological traits in predicting population trends often vary between different groups of birds. Moreover, our results reinforce the notion that variation in avian population trends is controlled by more than phylogeny and geography, where closely related species within one region can show unique population trends due to differences in their ecological traits. We recommend that regional conservation plans, i.e. one-size-fits-all plans, be implemented only for bird groups with population trends under strong phylogenetic or geographic controls. We underscore the need to develop species-specific research and management strategies for other groups, like songbirds, that exhibit high variation in their population trends and are influenced by multiple ecological traits.

Deforestation within breeding ranges may still drive population trends of migratory forest birds in the East Asian Flyway

The East Asian Flyway (EAF) is the most species diverse of global flyways, with deforestation in its migratory landbird’s non-breeding range suspected to be the main driver of population decline. Yet range-wide habitat loss impact assessments on EAF migratory landbirds are scarce, and seasonal variation in habitat preference of migratory species further increases the complexity for conservation strategies. In this study, we reviewed population trends of migratory forest breeding birds in the EAF along with their seasonal habitat preference from the literature and assessed the impact of forest cover change in species’ breeding and non-breeding ranges on population trends. We found that 41.3% of the bird species with trend data available are declining, and most have higher forest preference in the breeding season. Despite 93.4% of the species experienced deforestation throughout their annual cycle, forest cover change in the non-breeding range was not identified as the main driver of population trend. However, forest cover change in species’ regional breeding range interacts positively with the degree of breeding season forest preference in predicting population trends. We therefore stress that regional breeding habitat protection may still be important while following the call for cross-border collaboration to fill the information gap for flyway conservation.

Drivers of the changing abundance of European birds at two spatial scales.

Detecting biodiversity change and identifying its causes is challenging because biodiversity is multifaceted and temporal data often contain bias. Here, we model temporal change in species' abundance and biomass by using extensive data describing the population sizes and trends of native breeding birds in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). In addition, we explore how species' population trends vary with species' traits. We demonstrate significant change in the bird assemblages of the UK and EU, with substantial reductions in overall bird abundance and losses concentrated in a relatively small number of abundant and smaller sized species. By contrast, rarer and larger birds had generally fared better. Simultaneously, overall avian biomass had increased very slightly in the UK and was stable in the EU, indicating a change in community structure. Abundance trends across species were positively correlated with species' body mass and with trends in climate suitability, and varied with species' abundance, migration strategy and niche associations linked to diet. Our work highlights how changes in biodiversity cannot be captured easily by a single number; care is required when measuring and interpreting biodiversity change given that different metrics can provide very different insights. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.

Demography-environment relationships improve mechanistic understanding of range dynamics under climate change.

Species respond to climate change with range and abundance dynamics. To better explain and predict them, we need a mechanistic understanding of how the underlying demographic processes are shaped by climatic conditions. Here, we aim to infer demography-climate relationships from distribution and abundance data. For this, we developed spatially explicit, process-based models for eight Swiss breeding bird populations. These jointly consider dispersal, population dynamics and the climate-dependence of three demographic processes-juvenile survival, adult survival and fecundity. The models were calibrated to 267 nationwide abundance time series in a Bayesian framework. The fitted models showed moderate to excellent goodness-of-fit and discriminatory power. The most influential climatic predictors for population performance were the mean breeding-season temperature and the total winter precipitation. Contemporary climate change benefitted the population trends of typical mountain birds leading to lower population losses or even slight increases, whereas lowland birds were adversely affected. Our results emphasize that generic process-based models embedded in a robust statistical framework can improve our predictions of range dynamics and may allow disentangling of the underlying processes. For future research, we advocate a stronger integration of experimental and empirical studies in order to gain more precise insights into the mechanisms by which climate affects populations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.

Population trends of ground-nesting birds indicate increasing environmental impacts from Eastern to Western Europe: different patterns for open-habitat and woodland species

Introduction: Bird populations reflect the influence of major environmental changes, and the analysis of their long-term population trends concerning species-specific ecological traits can provide insight into biologically relevant impacts of such changes. In this respect, nest site is a particularly informative trait because ground-nesting bird species are more prone, in contrast to species nesting above the ground, to the impacts of nest predation which can be linked to various environmental drivers including the intensification of agriculture or woodland management. Here we hypothesize that a) ground-nesting species present negative trends due to environmental pressures mentioned above, b) such declining trends should be more pronounced in Western than in Eastern Europe because, in Western countries, the environmental threats are likely greater, and c) the interaction between nest site and habitat association will point at the habitat types where the presumed drivers most likely operate.Methods: We used population trends from 1980 to 2016 of 332 bird species in 16 European countries to test this hypothesis.Results: We found that the long-term population trends of ground-nesting birds are more negative than the trends of species nesting above the ground indicating the effect of nest predation, and this difference increased from Eastern to Western European countries, probably due to steeply increasing populations of nest predators in the West. However, the effect of longitude interacted with the habitat association being strong in woodland species and weak in open-habitat species.Discussion: This pattern suggests that the increased nest predation pressure in the West is linked to woodlands, probably due to higher abundances of mammalian herbivores that destroy forest ground and shrub layer, and thus leave the nests exposed to predators. In contrast, only a weak longitudinal pattern in open-habitat species indicates that the negative impacts of agricultural intensification are no longer confined to the Western part of the continent. Although nature conservation activities are generally successful in Europe, as indicated by benefits provided by the Natura 2000 network, our results uncovered substantial gaps in delivering such benefits.

Twenty-One Year Trends for Shorebirds, Waterfowl, and Other Waterbirds at Great Salt Lake, Utah

Millions of wetland-dependent birds annually depend on saline lakes and associated wetlands in the western United States. Understanding the population status and trends of birds with different life histories and habitats can guide efforts to secure water resources needed to sustain bird habitats. We used a 21-year dataset to examine population trends for 24 survey units for migratory shorebirds, waterfowl, and other waterbirds at Great Salt Lake and associated wetlands. We found stable or positive trends for 36 of 37 species or groups in fall, spring, or both seasons when considering survey units in aggregate. Stable, positive, and negative trends were observed in individual survey units. Foraging technique, migration distance, and taxonomic groupings were unrelated to trend direction. Research is needed to test whether survey units represent high-quality habitat. With declining regional water resources, stable and positive aggregate trends reinforce the importance of surveyed units at Great Salt Lake and associated wetlands to wetland-dependent birds. Ensuring continuation of stable and positive trends will require identifying environmental factors—including water quantity and quality—driving trends, and require coordinated regional management and monitoring of wetland-dependent birds.

Decomposing trends in bird populations: Climate, life histories and habitat affect different aspects of population change

AbstractAimDespite the complexity of population dynamics, most studies concerning current changes in bird populations reduce the trajectory of population change to a linear trend. This may hide more complex patterns reflecting responses of bird populations to changing anthropogenic pressures. Here, we address this complexity by means of multivariate analysis and attribute different components of bird population dynamics to different potential drivers.LocationCzech Republic.MethodsWe used data on population trajectories (1982–2019) of 111 common breeding bird species, decomposed them into independent components by means of the principal component analysis (PCA), and related these components to multiple potential drivers comprising climate, land use change and species' life histories.ResultsThe first two ordination axes explained substantial proportion of variability of population dynamics (42.0 and 12.5% of variation in PC1 and PC2 respectively). The first axis captured linear population trend. Species with increasing populations were characterized mostly by long lifespan and warmer climatic niches. The effect of habitat was less pronounced but still significant, with negative trends being typical for farmland birds, while positive trends characterized birds of deciduous forests. The second axis captured the contrast between hump‐shaped and U‐shaped population trajectories and was even more strongly associated with species traits. Species migrating longer distances and species with narrower temperature niches revealed hump‐shaped population trends, so that their populations mostly increased before 2000 and then declined. These patterns are supported by the trends of total abundances of respective ecological groups.Main ConclusionAlthough habitat transformation apparently drives population trajectories in some species groups, climate change and associated species traits represent crucial drivers of complex population dynamics of central European birds. Decomposing population dynamics into separate components brings unique insights into non‐trivial patterns of population change and their drivers, and may potentially indicate changes in the regime of anthropogenic effects on biodiversity.

Using Breeding Bird Survey and eBird data to improve marsh bird monitoring abundance indices and trends

The elusive nature of many marsh-breeding birds presents a challenge for effective population monitoring. The Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program (GLMMP), delivered by Birds Canada, addressed these challenges by concentrating survey efforts in marsh bird habitats and by using survey protocols aimed at maximizing marsh bird detections. GLMMP data suggest that numerous marsh bird species are declining. Here we consider the value of other avian monitoring programs to support our understanding of marsh bird population trends. Our goal was to compare the GLMMP, North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and eBird with each other and with a combined survey, by evaluating frequency of detection, annual indices of abundance, and trend estimates. Using 23 years (1997–2019) of GLMMP, BBS, and eBird data, we calculated annual indices of abundance and trends for each survey for 18 marsh-breeding species across southern Ontario, Canada. We found that the GLMMP had more frequent detections, greater counts, and/or more precise trends for 8 species that breed almost exclusively in marshes, whereas 10 species with more variable habitat preferences had more frequent detections, greater counts, and/or more precise trends based on eBird and/or BBS. We found that combining counts from the GLMMP, BBS, and eBird increased the precision around trend estimates for 11/18 (61%) species; however, trend estimates for combined data tended to be positively biased relative to GLMMP trends for species that also frequent non-marsh habitats. We, therefore, provide evidence that combining citizen science data from multiple sources could increase the power to detect changes in marsh-dependent bird populations. Integrated datasets thus provide a promising avenue for future marsh bird conservation and management.

Bird species occupancy trends in Southeast Mexico over 1900-2020: Accounting for sighting record absences.

Long-term land-use change impacts tropical bird communities through population-level and functional diversity effects from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, leading to land management and conservation challenges. Assessing the temporal impacts of land-use change on occupancy patterns, population change and functional traits of bird species in tropical areas is limited by the treatment of nondetections as true absences or artefacts of low sampling effort during and throughout years. With this in mind, we developed a novel Bayesian species occupancy framework to account for species absences to evaluate bird community changes in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, where there is opportunity for study given exceptional records of change across habitats from rainforest to urban centres. We created a novel dataset of population trends for 244 bird species over the years 1900 to 2020 from published short-term field studies, expert field notes and community science pages. Our results show that open area species had higher population increases than forest specialists over time, represented most evidently by the turnover of rainforest specialists for urban species. Modelled influence of functional traits displayed the importance of main habitat types, body mass and habitat and dietary breadth as factors that associated with bird population trends. On average, species with body masses <6.6 and > 948.4g showed decreasing trends, while all other species showed increasing or stable trends. Our findings illuminate the value of accounting for species absences from several data sources to discover long-term species population trends and affiliated functional traits whose preservation requires conservation and land management action to protect bird ecosystem services. Primary forest conservation is key to maintaining populations of habitat and dietary specialists, such as small understorey insectivorous and large frugivorous species. Protecting rare natural savanna patches from conversion to cattle pasture is vital to prevent further extirpation of native granivores and to slow colonization by exotic and invasive species.

Breeding bird population trends during 2013–2019 inside and outside of European badger control areas in England

AbstractSince 2013, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has licenced culling of European badger (Meles meles) populations in several English regions. In the first 7 years, more than 100 000 badgers have been removed. It is critical to evaluate the ecological impact of severely depressing the population of a widespread predator from large areas of the country, such as effects on breeding bird populations. Citizen science survey data on the abundance of breeding birds supports the estimation of population trends, i.e. whether species are exhibiting population growth or declines, and the effects of potential environmental influences, such as badger removal, on these trends. Here, these survey data are used together with data on the presence and amount of culling in an area to explore whether removing badgers has an effect on breeding bird populations both inside and outside culling zones from 2013–2019. This is not equivalent to a controlled trial, but collects critical, landscape‐scale evidence in real‐world conditions. In analyses evaluating the effect of culling presence, 18 of 55 bird species showed significant or near‐significant growth rate changes. Of these, four species had higher growth rates and 14 exhibited lower growth rates in cull areas, compared to areas outside of the culling zones. When using culling intensity data to assess the impact on growth rates, 10 of 55 species showed significant or near‐significant results, with only one species exhibiting a higher population growth rate in the presence of more intensive culling. Predicted sensitivity to badger effects based on species' ecologies did not predict whether the measured relationships were significant, or their directions, suggesting that other factors underlie the patterns seen. Hence, there was little evidence to indicate consistent, community‐level effects of badger removal on bird populations. A landscape‐scale, quasi‐experimental approach is strongly recommended to provide stronger inference about the complex potential ecological effects of culling predators such as the badger.

Bird species composition, density and feeding guilds in contrasting lowland dipterocarp forests of Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia

A study was conducted to determine the species composition, density and feeding guild of birds at Tasik Kenyir and Setiu, Terengganu between June and September 2017 using line transect method. Observations of birds at Tasik Kenyir and Setiu recorded a total of 297 individuals consisting of 26 families from 64 species. This study estimated that the diversity of birds at Tasik Kenyir (H’ = 3.6) was higher compared to Setiu (H’ = 2.9). However, the density of birds at Setiu (52.05 ± 9.09 SE individuals/ha) was higher than Tasik Kenyir (37.56 ± 10.28 SE individuals/ha). Ten feeding guilds of birds were identified in this study; insectivore, nectarivore, frugivore, omnivore, carnivore, granivore, insectivore-nectarivore, insectivore-frugivore, insectivore-granivore and frugivore-granivore. This study has provided valuable information on the bird assemblage and the understanding on the distribution of birds at Tasik Kenyir and Setiu. It is highly recommended that further studies to be conducted at both sites with more sampling efforts in order to gain a more comprehensive baseline datasets for monitoring bird population trends and turnover between habitats.

Automatic Classification of Bird Sounds: Using MFCC and Mel Spectrogram Features with Deep Learning

Bird species identification is a relevant and time-consuming task for ornithologists and ecologists. With growing amounts of audio-annotated data, automatic bird classification using machine learning techniques is an important trend in the scientific community. Analyzing bird behavior and population trends helps detect other organisms in the environment and is an important problem in ecology. Bird populations react quickly to environmental changes, which make their real-time counting and tracking challenging and very useful. A reliable methodology that automatically identifies bird species from audio would therefore be a valuable tool for the experts in different scientific and applicational domains. The goal of this work is to propose a methodology to identify bird sounds. In this paper, we explore deep learning techniques that are being used in this domain, such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) to classify the data. In deep learning, audio problems are commonly approached by converting them into images using audio feature extraction techniques such as Mel Spectrograms and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs). We propose and test multiple deep learning and feature extraction combinations in order to find the most suitable approach to this problem.

The effects of a decade of agri‐environment intervention in a lowland farm landscape on population trends of birds and butterflies

Abstract Declines in farmland biodiversity remain evident despite over three decades of research and implementation of agri‐environment schemes (AES). Although positive effects of AES are often demonstrated locally or in the short term, studies exploring longer term trends in biodiversity often show contradictory results. Evidence for the potential of AES to drive beneficial changes in populations remains sparse, especially for mobile taxa such as birds and butterflies. We analysed the abundance of 12 widespread bird and 9 butterfly species from a 10‐year study of AES intervention in a farmland landscape in southern England. We compared estimates of annual population growth rates from our study landscape with rates derived from large‐scale national monitoring schemes in equivalent landscapes without substantial AES. Species trends in our study landscape were frequently stable or increasing, in contrast to concurrent declining trends in equivalent landscapes without AES. These differences were significant for total abundance of granivorous species and for chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus and great tit Parus major individually. For butterflies, differences in trends were significantly more positive for gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus and green‐veined white Pieris napi, while small white P. rapae showed a trend that was significantly more negative in our study landscape. Synthesis and applications. Our results demonstrate that, for some bird and butterfly species, the higher abundances associated with areas of AES uptake within a typical commercial farmland landscape can co‐occur with positive or stable population trends over long time scales and that these trends can show significant differences from those in equivalent landscapes without substantial AES interventions. Our results suggest that previously observed inconsistencies in AES benefits may in part reflect a lack of long‐term studies with accurate data on AES uptake and quality (i.e. successful implementation and management). Our results, thus, affirm the importance of delivering and monitoring high‐quality AES options if the design and implementation of the next generation of AES is to achieve significant benefits for biodiversity.