Hanna Kuzio

Ornithologist and ecologist, works in the international nature conservation organization "Frankfurt Zoological Society", popularizer of science and bird watching

Science to preserve nature: how war affects birds, why ornithology is relevant nowadays, and what is birdwatching?

Story by ornithologist Hanna Kuzio.

About becoming an ornithologist

I got interested in birds after my stay at the bird ringing station. Before that, I was not very interested in nature. I was more into books. But we had a family friend who was an ornithologist – Ihor Myronovych Horban. He advised me to study ecology. He brought me to a bird ringing station for a few days right before I started university. It was the first time I slept in a tent and saw how birds were caught, ringed, and measured. I remember someone putting a bird in my hands just after arrival. Obviously, I did not understand what to do with it – so it flew away. But I really enjoyed working with birds.

I studied Ecology at the Faculty of Biology of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. That’s where I met ornithologists, including Ihor Vitaliyovych Shydlovskyi, who became my scientific supervisor. At the university, I studied western yellow wagtail [ed. bird species] and how grazing capacity affects the population of this species. These wagtails depend on agriculture, that is, on how and where they graze. If the pastures are chaotically overgrown with bushes (it happens a lot in the Lviv Region), wagtails and other field species disappear.

My thesis was dedicated to studying birds in the Lviv suburbs, so I obviously did all the bird records myself. That’s how I realised that the development of an extensive database that can be used statistically requires more people. After some projects, life gradually led me to teach people to study birds, train volunteers and dream that one day we will have a bird monitoring programme in Ukraine – or at least in some western areas to begin with.

I managed the “Bird ID” project at a Norwegian university for some time. Ornithologists in 15 countries trained birdwatchers and amateurs to identify birds and make records. Every weekend for half a year, we travelled, taught people, and organised exams. Unfortunately, this robust and cool project has already ended. Still, I learned that there is a demand for it – more and more people are getting interested in birds in Ukraine. When Covid began, I also started organising online webinars, courses, etc.

During the last three years, together with my colleague Oleksii Dubovyk, who is doing his PhD in the US, we have been organising bird records and monitoring the birds of Lviv with the help of birdwatchers. For now, this is a pilot project, but I believe that over time it will grow into something well-structured and cool, and eventually will have appropriate funding.

Even this level of bird monitoring is interesting from a scientific point of view, provided it lasts over many years. Ten or twenty years – and we get a considerable amount of interesting information: changes in the number, birds population increase or decrease in specific areas, etc. First and foremost, it is a mechanism for nature protection. That’s something we lack in Ukraine because some bird species are going extinct. We don’t even know how many birds live here because our few ornithologists cannot cover the whole country.

Sometimes, people notice: “Oh, there used to be larks here before, but they are gone now.” We don’t even have the numbers, which is obviously a constraint. We do not understand what is happening, so we cannot decide what can be done concretely and effectively to tackle the issue. Such monitoring is a must-have for preservation, basic research, etc. Therefore, one can say that my field of interest is the science of protecting nature.

How has the war affected your work?

We continue our preservation activities at the Frankfurt Zoological Society. The war had a slightly more significant effect on our bird record project. For example, some volunteers count birds in Lviv. It looks like this: people just walk around with cameras and binoculars. Lviv is divided into squares, and all volunteers count birds at specific points. Now it is possible again to walk with binoculars in parks and streets. Still, you would be arrested immediately for that at the beginning of the war. Therefore, all our counting activities were interrupted.

How does the war affect birds?

There is a lot of research proving the harmful effects of fireworks and other explosions on birds – let alone real shelling in the front-line zone. It is terrible stress. At the same time, it is impossible to calculate the area of ​​destroyed nature in Ukraine – the birds that survived will simply have nowhere to return. For example, flat areas like meadows and pastures that are shovelled by the wheels of military equipment actually become destroyed biotopes. We have steppe areas in the east and south of the country, where hostilities are still ongoing, where entire ecosystems have been destroyed. Some coastal areas have also been ruined.

We have an example from 2014 when russian troops landed in the “Meotyda” reserve. Before, it was a birds’ paradise hosting tens of thousands of Sandwich terns, rare species of Dalmatian pelican. It was one of the few places where the Pallas’s gull nested. No words can describe how incredible this place was. However, after the paratroopers’ landing, everything disappeared there. And this is just one case – it’s hard to imagine how many losses we have sustained now.

Why do we need to work with science and ornithology now?

Scientists can push the country forward. The country’s progress is impossible without the advancement of science. If we want to recover quickly after the war, we need to follow the example of Japan, where investments in science are significant. And ornithology, in fact, is required to understand how we will restore natural territories that have suffered from occupation and warfare.

Of course, human lives are the most important, but we cannot exist without nature. We breathe and drink water, agriculture depends on nature. Therefore, natural ecosystems must be preserved and restored in those places where they have been damaged. For this, we need scientists who know and understand that, and have the necessary scientific knowledge and competencies.

For instance, there are specific environmental requirements to join the European Union. Some of them apply specifically to birds. Birds are a suitable indicator species of the natural ecosystem state. There is even a separate birds directive in the EU, which contains a list of birds that must be preserved. Protected areas should be set aside for specific subspecies on the list. To join the European Union, we must also prepare a list of birds and territories.

It is necessary to develop a whole network of such territories and approve them. In Europe, this network is called “Natura 2000”. It is protected. Preservation activities and works are carried out in those territories if necessary. In Ukraine, such a network is called the “Emerald Network”. When we join the European Union, it will automatically turn into “Natura 2000”. And for the “Emerald Network” development, many different researchers should be involved: botanists, entomologists, natural biologists, and ornithologists, in particular, to understand where we have the largest key areas that need to be preserved for certain species.

What is birdwatching, and why should people try it?

In my opinion, birds can actually help a lot of people. After all, amid constant stress, birds can bring something positive. You watch them, concentrate, and count. I believe that birdwatching has excellent potential to help Ukrainians now and in the future.

Birdwatching is internationally known as a therapeutical activity. While birdwatching, various senses are involved: you look, listen, touch plants in the forest or field, immerse yourself in the environment of birds – all this has a good effect. Therefore, one of my dreams is for birdwatching to become very popular. Of course, this is not a panacea, and it is not a magic pill, but it can really help, so I would like as many people as possible to know about it.

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