In more than 100 countries, millions of waterbirds are counted each year. This monitoring program called International Waterbird Census (IWC) is coordinated by the Wetlands International, a global organisation working to sustain and restore wetlands. They bring all this information together collected worldwide by different organizations, analyse them and provide information on the global state of the birds and analyse changes in the population. The results of the IWC have been used in the designation of nearly half of the 1,369 Wetlands of International Importance in 138 countries, designated under the Ramsar Convention. With the IWC it is possible to monitor changes in waterbird numbers and distribution, to improve knowledge of little-known waterbird species and wetland sites, to identify and monitor sites that qualify as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, to provide information on the conservation status of waterbird species, presents information vital to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, Bonn Convention), and so on.
As a part of the IWC, in the middle of January annual midwinter counts are organizing all over the world. In Romania this task is fulfilled by the Milvus Group and the Romanian Ornithological Society. We collect information regarding the status of the wetlands in this period and count all the waterbirds present in these habitats. In 2011 an important part of the wetlands we used to visit every year through this program were frozen, and because of this we counted less waterbirds than the previous years. 28 members of the Milvus Group have been accessed 53 sites, collect information about 102887 waterbirds of 64 species.
The top ten list of the best represented waterbird species is the following:
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Anas platyrhynchos
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Mallard
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43736
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Fulica atra
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Coot
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19952
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Larus canus
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Common Gull
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7895
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Aythya fuligula
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Tufted Duck
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4667
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Bucephala clangula
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Goldeneye
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4531
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Larus cachinnans/michahellis
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Caspian/ Yellow-legged Gull
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4006
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Aythya ferina
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Red-crested Pochard
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3917
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Phalacrocorax carbo
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Cormorant
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1950
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Mergus albellus
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Smew
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1762
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Anas crecca
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Teal
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1315
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We would like to say a big thank you to all who have contributed to this data. For more information about the results from previous years collected from the whole country please feel free access this webpage: http://www.sor.ro/IWC/rezultate.htm
