High-resolution habitat suitability maps for all widespread Italian breeding bird species

Tackling the current global biodiversity crisis requires large-scale spatially accurate biodiversity data to rapidly assess knowledge gaps and set conservation priorities. Obtaining such data is often challenging because surveying biodiversity across broad spatial scales requires massive logistical and economic efforts. Here, we provide high-resolution (0.81 to 81 km2, depending on species ecology) habitat suitability raster maps for all 225 widespread breeding bird species in Italy. Maps were generated by means of species distribution models based on ~2.5 million spatially accurate (≤1 km-scale) and expert-validated occurrence records. Occurrence data were collected during the breeding seasons 2010–2016 by over 3000 skilled observers, mostly through the Ornitho.it web platform, with the aim of realizing the second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Italy, released in 2022. These raster maps will be useful to ecologists, conservation scientists and practitioners for investigating broad spatial patterns in avian diversity and identifying conservation priorities. We discuss potential applications of this dataset for inferring the composition of ecological communities and species distributions at the Italian scale.