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European Rollers disappeared as breeding birds from southeastern Poland after 2022

European Roller perched on a branch
Conservation · Population & status

Long-term monitoring has documented the disappearance of the European roller (Coracias garrulus) as a breeding bird from southeastern Poland. The study, published in Ornis Polonica on 2 June 2026, followed the region’s breeding sites from 2009 to 2025 and continued an earlier monitoring series covering 1990–2008.

At the beginning of the new study period, rollers were still present at dozens of sites. In 2009, researchers recorded 43 occupied sites, including 14 where breeding was confirmed. The following years brought a rapid decline in both occupied sites and breeding pairs.

Breeding eventually disappeared completely after 2022. In 2023, the only breeding-season record was a single bird at one site. From 2024 onwards, no European rollers were recorded in the study area during the breeding season.

The spatial pattern was equally striking. Every roller record after 2009 came from a site already known from earlier years. The researchers found no newly established breeding sites and no recolonisation of sites that had been abandoned.

The pattern was not a temporary fall in numbers, but the loss of the regional breeding population monitored in southeastern Poland. The authors conclude that conservation measures focused only on protecting breeding sites were not sufficient to prevent the decline.

Sources and image credit

  1. Kata, M., Kata, K., Sobuś, T., Szyszka, M., Grzybek, J., & Snopek, S. (2026). The decline of the European Roller Coracias garrulus in south-eastern Poland between 2009 and 2025. Ornis Polonica, 67, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.12657/ornis.2026.1.4Primary study based on long-term annual monitoring.
  2. Ornis Polonica. (2026, June 2). Zeszyt 2026-1.Journal issue announcement for issue 2026-1.

Image: Zeynel Cebeci — European Roller photographed in Kesmeburun, Osmaniye, Turkey; Wikimedia Commons quality image, not from the Polish monitoring study · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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