Description
This census dataset contains occurrence data on birds observed and counted in a coastal dune zone of the Zwin Nature Park (ZNP) at Knokke-Heist in West Flanders, Belgium. The data were collected in a standardised way since April 2018 at fixed localities within the ZNP’s provincial domain. This census area is situated between the ‘Zwin Plain’ and ‘Zwin dunes and polders’. All these Zwin subareas are situated within the European Natura 2000 network (particularly protected under both the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive) and the global Ramsar Convention (protecting Wetlands of International Importance).
This dataset is published as a standardised Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event a parentEventID, grouping eventIDs per locality and event date, according to the sampling protocol, with sample size and unit, event time (if registered), the country code, longitude and latitude with geodetic datum and coordinate uncertainty (in the event core), and for each occurrence, an occurrenceID, the scientific name, Dutch vernacular name, taxon rank, occurrence status (absent or present), the number of recorded individuals (if counted) or occurrence remarks, and the identifiedBy term for the field observer’s name, beside the interlinked eventID (in the occurrence extension).
Additional Ecological Inventories vocabulary includes siteCount, siteNestingDescription, samplingEffort and other terms (in the Humboldt extension) to report detailed information about the field observation census protocol. The Humboldt extension is not yet indexed but those eco terms are retrievable in DwC-A download of this dataset.
We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) implying that users of data make proper reference to this dataset.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 325 records.
2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Faveyts W, Cooleman S (2025). Bird census counts at the Zwin Nature Park. Version 1.3. Belgian Biodiversity Platform. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=zwin-park-birds-observations&v=1.3
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Belgian Biodiversity Platform. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: dde71542-ad2d-4ec7-a93c-eb18bc0f432b. Belgian Biodiversity Platform publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Observation; Census; Natura2000
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Scientific collaborator
- Metadata Provider
- Biodiversity Data Officer
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3029-0451
Geographic Coverage
The provincial domain of the Zwin Nature Park (ZNP) is located in the northernmost corner of West Flanders along the Belgian coastline fronting the North Sea. The adjacent Zwin Plain includes the border with the Netherlands. Biologically, the avifauna in this European part typically belongs to the Western Palaearctic Region.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [51.358, 3.343], North East [51.362, 3.353] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
The target taxonomic scope is focussing on the complete class Aves. All the birds, that have been observed and identified since the first census event in April 2018, are listed per event until 2024: totally 157 taxa (including 154 species, one subspecies and two domestic forms) are reported in the entire census area of the ZNP’s provincial domain.
| Class | Aves |
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Temporal Coverage
| Formation Period | 2018-current (especially 2023-2024 in this dataset version) |
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Sampling Methods
A standarised observation protocol: all individuals are counted of all birds (seen or heard) from the two point localities and along the two short transects. In contrary, along the Inner Trail, all individuals of most bird species (seen or heard) are counted, namely except following five very common species: of Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus, Great Tit Parus major, Eurasian Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, Carrion Crow Corvus corone and Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes, not all individuals are counted. Besides, birds only flying high over the ZNP, seen or heard from along the Inner Trail, are noted as 'flying over' without a count: those overflying birds don't make use of the park, but are actually present.
| Study Extent | Within the Zwin Nature Park's provincial domain, all observed birds are counted at five fixed localities on the same morning, maximum twice per month, when wheather conditions are (sub)optimal to observe birds (i.e. not too windy/rainy). Those fixed localities are three transects and two points: - The Inner Trail (IR) is the longest route through dune grassland and scrub along ponds with wetland vegetation in the core zone of the ZNP. The two other trails are shorter transects, namely the Forest Trail (FT) in the western, forested dune zone of the ZNP, and the Dyke Trail (DT) in the northeastern, forested, inner dune edge of the ZNP. - The two points are each situated along a different short transect: respectively the Forest Trail Point (FTP) and the Dyke Trail Point (DTP). |
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Method step description:
- All these observation data have consistently been counted by Wouter Faveyts, so far, in the field at the Zwin Nature Park. In Excel sheets per locality, the data are collected, including summed numbers per taxon and per date. A brief description of the observation method is also provided.
- Based on those Excel sheets, Darwin Core data files are created largely through data wrangling in R, uploaded and documented with metadata in the IPT of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform by Stijn Cooleman.
- The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | dde71542-ad2d-4ec7-a93c-eb18bc0f432b |
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| https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=zwin-park-birds-observations |