The umbrella species include common farmland birds. They are quite common and easy to spot and count, thus, when you run your monitoring exercises, such as Common Breeding Birds Monitoring Programme (MPPL)^* , you can observe population trends and thus, gather information about the state of the environment. The so called  Farmland Bird Index (FBI)^* in now one of the officially used indices reflecting the state of environment in EU-member states. You should realize that many farmland bird species are insectivorous birds and birds of prey, which means they are natural allies of farmers in their fight against insects and rodents causing economic losses.

Umbrella species include also birds who are index (monitoring) species, such as:
 

White stork Ciconia cicoinia

Montagu's harrier Circus pygargus 

Northern lapwing Vanellus vanellus 

Corncrake Crex crex 

Hoopoe Upupa epops

Red-backed shrike Lanius collurio 

Grey partridge Perdix perdix 

Quail Coturnix coturnix 

Western yellow wagtail Motacilla flava 

Whinchat Saxicola ruberta 

Eurasian skylark Alauda arvensis