Because of a lack of information on city birds in the Netherlands, bird survey organization SOVON plans to conduct a study on the birds that live in urban areas. The survey, known as MUS (Dutch word for Sparrow) will begin in spring 2007.
The Dutch partner of BirdLife International, Vogelbescherming, will conduct the survey in partnership with SOVON.
The groups plan to focus their study on sparrows and swallows, two types of birds that live primarily in urban environments.
Everyone is invited to participate. There will be three survey periods over the year. The first period will be between 1 and 30 April, with volunteers requested to count birds in the morning hours. The second survey period is 15 May until 15 June, again in the morning hours. During the third survey period, 15 June to 15 July, volunteers are asked to count birds in the evening.
Information on joining the survey, which is done without any paperwork (entirely online), can be found at www.sovon.nl (in Dutch).
