Letter to the editor concerning the paper “Attraction points: A new sampling design method to quantify common finches' populations” published by Marazuela Pinela et al. in Ecological Indicators, 171, 113155 (2025)

Ecological Indicators 2026 Open access

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Authors: Juan José Negro, Carlos Camacho, José Luis Tella, David Pedro Serrano, Miguel Tejedo, Jordi Figuerola, Tomás Redondo, Ismael Galván, Airam Rodríguez, Luis M. Carrascal, Luisa Amo, Beatriz Arroyo
+21 more François Mougeot, Francisco Valera, Juan Arizaga, Irene Mendoza, José Prenda, Juan Carlos Atienza, Juan Carlos Señar, Víctor Manuel Díaz Núñez de Arenas, Josabel Belliure, Daniel Oró, Bart Kempenaers, Stephen M. Schutz John Baillie, Radovan Václav, Rafael Arenas, Javier Seoane, Pedro Molina Holgado, Jose Luis Tellería, Guillermo Fandós, Perez-Tris Javier, Paola Laiolo, Antoni Margalida
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.114719
Cited by: 0
References: 13

Abstract

A paper recently published by Marazuela Pinela et al. (2025) in Ecological Indicators advocates for the use of the numbers of wild finches attracted by live decoys at fixed points as a more unbiased and reliable method to estimate the abundance of finch populations than other widely used and less intrusive methods used worldwide to monitor avian populations. This Letter provides a critical assessment of significant ethical and methodological shortcomings in the original article. In the view of all signatories, the study is seriously flawed, and its proposed methodology is unjustified and should not be adopted.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Avian ecology and behavior Census and Population Estimation Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Publication details

Journal / source
Ecological Indicators
Volume
184
Pages
114719–114719
Publication date
27 February 2026
Language
EN