Ann. Zool. Fennici 40: 365–385 ISSN 0003-455X Helsinki 29 August 2003 © Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board 2003 Population trends of the Finnish starling Sturnus vulgaris, 1952–1998, as inferred from annual ringing totals Jukka Rintala1,2, Juha Tiainen1 & Timo Pakkala2 1) Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, P.O. Box 6, FIN-00721 Helsinki, Finland (e-mail: fi rst name.surname@rktl.fi ) 2) Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 17, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland (e-mail:
[email protected].fi ) Received 18 Dec. 2002, revised version received 28 May 2003, accepted 2 June 2003 Rintala, J., Tiainen, J. & Pakkala, T. 2003: Population trends of the Finnish starling Sturnus vul- garis, 1952–1998, as inferred from annual ringing totals. — Ann. Zool. Fennici 40: 365–385. Finnish starling populations have declined, a phenomenon fi rst noted towards the end of the 1970s. Here we use national ringing totals to estimate changes in the starling population. However, the numbers ringed depend not only on the population size but also on yearly variations in ringing activities. Thus, it was necessary to correct these totals based on the records of other ringed passerines. In this study, we used a Monte Carlo simulation based on time series regressions for the estimation of confi dence of indices. The results suggest that the population size from the early 1970s to the 1990s was signifi cantly smaller than in the 1950s and 1960s. It was concluded that (i) the population was fairly stable in the period 1952–1970, (ii) the population started a con- sistent decline around 1970, and (iii) the population declined by approximately 90% in the period 1970–1985.