March 10th, 2026
An overview of complete lists data collection in SE Europe in 2025
One of the aims of the LIFE EBP Reinforcement project is to increase participation in the collection of bird observations, especially of complete lists, through the online bird portals operating in SE Europe. This part of the project includes 13 countries, seven core ones (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) and six additional countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia).
The first step was to
establish national online bird data collection portals in the seven core
countries, as none existed before the start of the project. This was done
gradually, starting in mid-2023, and nowadays all countries have a functional local
portal or, at least, can collect data through the local mobile apps.
Thanks to these
developments and an ongoing data collection campaign, since the project started
in mid-2023, there has been a positive trend in the collection of complete
lists. The overall number of complete
lists in the core area increased from 563 in 2023 to 1,206 in 2024 and to 3,585
in 2025 (6,4 times the figure of 2023). The rest of the region also shows a positive
trend, though much less marked and stalling in 2025 (39,578 complete lists in
2023, 51,256 in 2024, and 45,565 in 2025). All in all, we reached a total of 49,150
complete lists in 2025 across all 13 countries, 22,4% more than in 2023.
Another good sign
comes from the percentage of records in complete lists, which was highest in
2025, at 69,1% (compared to 62,1% in 2024 and 54,6% in 2023). Similarly, the
number of observers entering data appears to be increasing across the region,
with the highest number recorded in 2025 (3,616 observers; 21,8% more than in
2023).
You can follow the
progress of these efforts on the SEELists wesite, which was established specifically to
showcase the progress of complete list collections and species phenology graphs
across SE Europe.
Although the trend is largely
positive, we still aim to increase the overall numbers in 2026 and engage even
more people in data collection in the region. Given that complete lists are
more valuable than causal records, we encourage everyone to collect them
whenever possible. This is especially true if you find yourself in a region
such as SE Europe, where data collection is still much lower than in other
parts of Europe.
