World's common birds 'declining'

Mark Kinver, BBC News 22 Sep 08;

The populations of the world's common birds are declining as a result of continued habitat loss, a global assessment has warned.

The survey by BirdLife International found that 45% of Europe's common birds had seen numbers fall, as had more than 80% of Australia's wading species.

The study's authors said governments were failing to fund their promises to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.

The findings will be presented at the group's World Conference in Argentina.

The State of the World's Birds 2008 report, the first update since 2004, found that common species - ones considered to be familiar in people's everyday lives - were declining in all parts of the world.

In Europe, an analysis of 124 species over a 26-year period revealed that 56 species had declined in 20 countries.

Farmland birds were worst affected, with the number of European turtle-doves (Streptopelia turtur) falling by 79%.

In Africa, birds of prey were experiencing "widespread decline" outside of protected areas. While in Asia, 62% of the continent's migratory water bird species were "declining or already extinct".

Biodiversity barometers

"For decades, people have been focusing their efforts on threatened birds," explained lead editor Ali Stattersfield, BirdLife International's head of science.



"But alongside this, we have been working to try to get a better understanding of what is going on in the countryside as a whole."

By consolidating data from various surveys, the team of researchers were able to identify trends affecting species around the world.

"It tells us that environmental degradation is having a huge impact - not just for birds, but for biodiversity as well," she told BBC News.

While well-known reasons, such as land-use changes and the intensive farming, were causes, Ms Stattersfield said that it was difficult to point the finger of blame at just one activity.

"The reasons are very complex," she explained. "For example, there have been reported declines of migratory species - particularly those on long-distance migrations between Europe and Africa.

"It is not just about understanding what is happening at breeding grounds, but also what is happening at the birds' wintering sites."

She said the findings highlighted the need to tackle conservation in a number of different ways.

"It is not enough to be looking at individual species or individual sites; we need to be looking at some of the policies and practices that affect our wider landscapes."


The global assessment also showed that rare birds were also continuing to be at risk.

One-in-eight of the world's birds - 1,226 species - was listed as being Threatened. Of these, 190 faced an imminent risk of extinction.

The white-rumped vulture, a once common sight in India, has seen its population crash by 99.9% in recent years.

An anti-inflammatory drug for cattle, called diclofenac, has been blamed for poisoning the birds, which eat the carcasses of the dead livestock.

"That has been a really shocking story," Ms Stattersfield said.



"Four years ago, we were not even sure what was responsible for the dramatic declines. It happened so suddenly, people were not prepared for it.

"Since then, the basis for the decline is well understood and measures are being taken to remove diclofenac from veterinary use in India.

"However, it is still available for sale and there still needs to be a lot more work to communicate the problem at a local level.

"But it demonstrates that we can get to the bottom of the reasons behind declines."

The plight of albatrosses becoming entangled in long-line fishing tackle has also been the subject of sustained campaigning, attracting high-profile supporters such as Prince Charles and yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur.

About 100,000 of the slow-breeding birds are estimated to drown each year as a result of being caught on the lines' fish hooks.

But fisheries in a growing number of regions are now introducing measures to minimise the risk to albatrosses.

Ms Stattersfield said these examples showed that concerted effort could investigate and identify what was adversely affecting bird populations.

But she quickly added that prevention was always better than finding a cure.

"We don't want to have to react to problems that come about from bad practice.

"What we are trying to do with this report is to be as clear as possible about what are the underlying causes, and then present a range of conservation measures that can preserve birds and biodiversity."

BirdLife International will use the report, which is being published at its week-long World Conference in Buenos Aires and on the group's website, to call for governments to make more funds available for global conservation.

"Effective biodiversity conservation is easily affordable, requiring relatively trivial sums at the scale of the global economy," said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's chief executive.

He estimated that safeguarding 90% of Africa's biodiversity would cost less than US $1bn (£500,000) a year.

"The world is failing in its 2010 pledge to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity," he warned.

"The challenge is to harness international biodiversity commitments and that concrete actions are taken now."

Catastrophic fall in numbers reveals bird populations in crisis throughout the world
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 22 Sep 08;

The birds of the world are in serious trouble, and common species are in now decline all over the globe, a comprehensive new review suggests today.

From the turtle doves of Europe to the vultures of India, from the bobwhite quails of the US to the yellow cardinals of Argentina, from the eagles of Africa to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean, the numbers of once-familiar birds are tumbling everywhere, according to the study from the conservation partnership BirdLife International.

Their falling populations are compelling evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth – including human life, BirdLife says in its report, State of The World's Birds.

The report, released today with an accompanying website at the BirdLife World Conservation Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, identifies many key global threats, including the intensification of industrial-scale agriculture and fishing, the spread of invasive species, logging, and the replacement of natural forest with monocultural plantations.

It goes on to suggest that in the long term, human-induced climate change may be the most serious stress.

Based in Cambridge, BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation organisations working in more than 100 countries and territories which is now the leading authority on the status of birds, their habitats and the issues and problems affecting them.

When brought together, as in its new report, the regional pictures of bird declines combine to present a startling picture of a whole class of living things on a steep downward slope.

A remarkable 45 per cent of common European birds are declining, with the familiar European turtle dove, for example, having lost 62 per cent of its population in the last 25 years, while on the other side of the globe, resident Australian wading birds have seen population losses of 81 per cent in the same period.

Twenty common North American birds have more than halved in number in the last four decades, while in Asia, the millions of white-rumped vultures which once filled the skies have crashed by 99.9 per cent and the species is now critically endangered.

"Many of these birds have been a familiar part of our everyday lives, and people who would not necessarily have noticed other environmental indicators have seen their numbers slipping away, and are wondering why," said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's chief executive.

All the world's governments have committed themselves to slowing or halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed, according to the report.

"Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity," Dr Rands said.

"Because these creatures are found almost everywhere on earth, they can act as our eyes and ears, and what they are telling us is that the deterioration in biodiversity and the environment is accelerating, not slowing.

"Effective biodiversity conservation is easily affordable, requiring relatively trivial sums at the scale of the global economy. For example, to maintain the protected area network which would safeguard 90 percent of Africa's biodiversity would cost less than $1bn a year. Yet in a typical year, the global community provides about $300m.

"The world is failing in its 2010 pledge. The challenge is to harness international biodiversity commitments and ensure that concrete actions are taken now."

The State of the World's Birds report can be found at www.birdlife.org/sowb

Birds in peril

*Europe

The report highlights the decline of common European birds. An analysis of 124 of Europe's common birds over a 26-year period reveals that 56 species (45 per cent) have declined across 20 European countries, with farmland birds badly hit. The familiar common cuckoo Cuculus canorus has declined by 17 per cent. The European turtle dove Streptopelia turtur, grey partridge Perdix perdix and corn bunting Miliaria calandra have dropped 62, 79 and 61 per cent respectively.

*African migrants to Europe

Birds migrating between Europe, the Middle East and Africa have suffered 40 per cent population declines over three decades. "Birds impacted by agricultural intensification in Europe may suffer excessive hunting in the Middle East and desertification of African wintering grounds," warned Dr Rands. "The Eurasian wryneck Jynx torquilla, northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, and common nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos are vanishing."

*Africa

Birds of prey are in widespread decline. In just three decades, 11 eagle species declined by 86-98 per cent in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. In addition, six large vulture species – including the once widespread Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus – have suffered very dramatic losses.

*Middle East and Central Asia

Many common species such as the Eurasian eagle owl Bubo bubo are under pressure. "The global population of Houbara bustard Chlamydotis undulata may have fallen 35 per cent in the past 20 years," noted Dr Rands.

*Asia

"Thirty years ago, tens of millions of white-rumped vultures Gyps bengalensis were flying the skies of Asia. The species was probably the most abundant large bird of prey in the world: it is now on the brink of extinction," Dr Rands said. Numbers have fallen by 99.9 per cent since 1992. "Migratory shorebirds and the wetland habitats they rely on for their annual journeys, are also under threat," added Dr Rands. Sixty-two percent of migratory waterbird species in Asia are declining or extinct.

*North America

Twenty common species have suffered population declines of over 50 per cent in the last 40 years. "Northern bobwhite, Colinus virginianus, has declined the most dramatically, with population reductions of 82 per cent," noted Dr Rands. Other widespread species suffering include the evening grosbeak Coccothraustes vespertinus (78 per cent), northern pintail Anas acuta (77 per cent) and boreal chickadee Poecile hudsonicus (73 per cent).

*North America to Latin America migrants

"57 per cent of neotropical [Central and South American] migrants monitored at their breeding grounds in the US have suffered declines over the last four decades," warned Dr Rands. "Migratory species such as the Wilson's phalarope Steganopus tricolor and semipalmated sandpiper Calidris pusilla are disappearing."

*Latin America

Bird monitoring in El Salvador reports that 25 per cent of common resident species – including the flame-coloured tanager Piranga bidentata, chestnut-capped brush-finch Arremon brunneinucha, and collared trogon Trogon collaris – have experienced significant declines over the last decade. No monitored species saw their numbers rise. "Formerly widespread species like the yellow cardinal Gubernatrix cristata, once common in Argentina, are endangered," noted Dr Rands.

*Pacific

"Studies of resident Australian waders reveal that 81 per cent of their populations disappeared in 25 years," said Dr Rands. Seabirds are threatened at a faster rate globally than all other groups. Nineteen of the 22 species of albatross are threatened with extinction, including the critically endangered Chatham albatross Thalassarche eremita.