Kleine Barmsijzen Acanthis cabaret als broedvogel in Drenthe

Manen W. van 2013. Common Redpoll Acanthis cabaret as a breeding bird in Drenthe. Drentse Vogels 27: . The trend of Common Redpolls breeding in Drenthe is reconstructed, based on published and unpublished information from well-surveyed regions with a long history of mapping breeding birds. In general, the respective trends of this inland population show high similarity, especially in the increase from scratch in the 1970s, the peak in the late 1970s, and a decline afterwards to incidental breeding attempts from the mid-1990s till 2013. An anomaly was recorded in 1989-91 when a high peak was recorded in one of the areas. A review of all observations, if still traceable in notebooks and reports, showed that few breeding records referred to confirmed breeding (nests, fledglings), leaving room for alternative interpretations. With very few exceptions, confirmed breeding was confined to May and June, with fledglings recorded mostly in June (in line with published data in Britain and Germany). Most of the records of territories, however, are confined to singing, displaying or ‘alarm-calling’ birds in May. It is suggested that the majority of the latter birds may have been migrants of the flammea population, rather than territorial/breeding cabaret. In order to improve the quality of breeding bird surveys, it is proposed to document all rare (and many scarce) breeding birds as detailed as possible.