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Romania Yes Yes 2006 Point counts Stratified semi-random 70 Slovak Republic Yes Yes 1994 Point counts Free choice 100 Slovenia Yes Yes 2007 Line transects Stratified non-random 29 Spain Yes Yes 1996 Point counts, line transects Stratified random, other 200 Sweden Yes Yes 1975 Point counts, line transects Free choice, systematic 180 United Kingdom Yes Yes 1966 Territory mapping, line transects Free choice, stratified random 111

      The extraordinary component of PECBMS are the thousands volunteers who count the birds in the field, each year, according to a methodology standardized at national level. The data are sent to the national offices, where, using TRIM software made available by PECBMS (van Strien et al., 2001; Statistics Netherlands, 2017), calculate the national species indices and trends. PECBMS combines national species indices with supra-national indices for individual species for the European Union and its main regions (new and old European Union, and West, South, North, Central and East Europe), plus Europe as a whole. All indices are annually updated, and EU indices are regularly sent to and published by EUROSTAT⁷. Thirty-nine species compose the Farmland Bird Index (FBI, Table 2). These are common species, which are dependent from agroecosystems for feeding and nesting, and as such are considered to be a descriptor of the state of agroecosystems. The index is a composite, multispecies index calculated using Monte Carlo simulations as described in Soldaat et al. (2017).

Table 2 Species composing the EU farmland bird index

Alauda arvensis	Emberiza melanocephala	Passer montanus
Alectoris rufa	Falco tinnunculus	Perdix perdix
Anthus campestris	Galerida cristata	Petronia petronia
Anthus pratensis	Galerida theklae	Saxicola rubetra
Bubulcus ibis	Hirundo rustica	Saxicola torquatus
Burhinus oedicnemus	Lanius collurio	Serinus serinus
Calandrella brachydactyla	Lanius minor	Streptopelia turtur
Carduelis cannabina	Lanius senator	Sturnus unicolor
Ciconia ciconia	Limosa limosa	Sturnus vulgaris
Corvus frugilegus	Melanocorypha calandra	Sylvia communis
Emberiza cirlus	Miliaria calandra	Tetrax tetrax
Emberiza citrinella	Motacilla flava	Upupa epops
Emberiza hortulana	Oenanthe hispanica	Vanellus vanellus

      Of the monitoring initiatives presented in this paper, this is the only one that has a wall-to-wall coverage of the European Union, with a sampling density sufficient to derive statistically meaningful information at different scales (EU, national, regional), on different ecosystem types (farmland, forest; montane birds and mire birds for North Europe indicators are under development) or climate change (Gregory et al., 2009).

      The information is valuable and widely used, since it is considered that, being at the top of the food chain, birds are indicators of the environment’s health. The farmland bird indicator is to date the most widespread biodiversity indicator used in EU policies (impact indicator of the CAP⁸; condition indicator of the Monitoring and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services – MAES⁹), indicator frameworks (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators – SEBI¹⁰; agri-environmental indicators – AEIs¹¹; OECD agri-environmental indicators¹²) and global assessments (e.g. FAO, 2019).

      2.2 European breeding bird atlas

      The EBCC has organized a second European Breeding Bird Atlas (EBBA2). This project, complementary to the PECBMS, brings information on spatial distribution and abundance of all bird species in Europe including European Russia and Turkey (www.ebba2.info). The outputs of the project which has collected field data from 2013 to 2017 are the maps of distribution and abundance of each species in a grid of 50 km×50 km, and maps of modelled probability of occurrence of selected species in a grid of 10 km×10 km. The atlas also provides maps of change in distribution in comparison with the 1980s, when the first atlas was produced. Information about the spatial distribution of species has been shown to have an extremely high value for policy, nature conservation and research (Herrando et al., 2019). The EBBA2 outputs will be published in 2020.

      2.3 Butterflies

      The experience of bird monitoring has paved the way to other initiatives aimed at planning and putting in place large-scale surveys. One of these is butterfly monitoring. Butterfly populations are in fact highly sensitive to environmental change, providing an early warning of impacts on ecosystems. Moreover, being insects, they are part of the food chain and they are also important pollinators. The process of establishing monitoring schemes in EU countries and improving the Grassland Butterfly Index is very similar to the PECBMS experience. Some countries had developed their own Butterfly Monitoring Scheme already in the nineties (e.g. Belgium – Flanders, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain – Catalonia), with the United Kingdom at the forefront, having started its monitoring activities in 1976 (Brereton et al., 2009).

      Butterflies are counted along line transects, by experts or skilled volunteers. The counts take place several times a year (in the majority of cases 10–20 times), under well-defined weather conditions and times of the day. Transects

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