Cuckoo's call becomes rarer in UK

BBC News 27 May 09;

The cuckoo - known for its springtime song - has joined a "red list" of the UK's most threatened bird species.

The lapwing, yellow wagtail and herring gull are also deemed to be urgently in need of conservation action. In the latest assessment of the UK's bird population, the number red-listed has risen by 5% since 2002, to more than one in five.

The RSPB said the growing number of charismatic, widespread and familiar birds now on the list was "scandalous".

RSPB conservation director Mark Avery said the "most shocking" decline was that of summer-visiting birds, like the cuckoo, which has seen numbers fall by 37% in the last 15 years.

Experts are not yet certain why migrant birds are in decline in the UK.

The number of red-listed species has risen to 52 (21%) out of 246 birds assessed, which is up from 40 species (16%) when the last assessment was done in 2002.

Most birds on the red list have seen their range or populations decline by more than half in recent years, or have undergone historical declines since 1800, from which they have not fully recovered.

The house sparrow, starling and song thrush are among the once-common British birds now on the list.

Some 21 red-listed bird species are summer visitors, most of which spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa.

Missing song

In the latest assessment, there was good news for the bullfinch, quail, reed bunting, Scottish crossbill, stone curlew and woodlark - which were all downgraded from the red list to "amber".

They had either increased their populations or range - mainly as a result of improvements in management of farmland for the stone curlew, and heathland for the woodlark - or more had been discovered about their numbers, as with the Scottish crossbill.

The assessment results will be published in the June edition of British Birds.

Andy Clements, director of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), said: "A gap all of us will notice is the lack of the cuckoo's familiar song. Their decline is emblematic of downward trends in many long-distance migrants from Africa."

He said BTO and its partners were working on research to try to understand why migrant birds are in decline.

"As this report shows, when we know what to do, and there are funds to do it, we can improve the fortunes of birds such as stone curlew and woodlark."

Although the cause of the cuckoo's decline is not known, a number of theories have been discussed, said the RSPB's Grahame Madge.

Research will look at whether there are problems with habitat, either in the UK or in Africa, or on their migration route, he said.

The species relies heavily on hairy moth caterpillars for food and, with many species of butterfly and moth are also suffering declines, a diminishing food supply could be having an impact.

In addition, with cuckoos laying their eggs in other birds nests, there may be issues with their key hosts, such as the meadow pipit and dunnock, being in decline.

While no link to climate change has been proved, there are concerns that, with European temperatures rising, migratory birds are losing their ecological advantage over birds which over-winter in Europe.

The addition of five species to the red list - Temminck's stint, ruff, whimbrel, redwing and fieldfare - which are at the southern edge of their spread in the British Isles, could suggest a shift in range brought on by a changing climate.

Seabirds join list

For the first time, two winter visitors, the dunlin and the scaup, have been added to the red list because of declines in their wintering populations.

Rich Hearn, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's head of species monitoring, said their inclusion highlighted an "increasingly widespread phenomenon of climate change-driven shifts in distribution".

Three seabirds have also joined the red list, the Balearic shearwater, which is at a higher risk of global extinction than the giant panda; the Arctic skua, the only bird to go straight from the low-concern "green list" straight to red; and the herring gull.

The assessment, Birds of Conservation Concern 3, is compiled by a group of organisations including the BTO, Countryside Council for Wales, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

Society warns cuckoo bird in danger of extinction
Michael Bushnell, Associated Press Yahoo News 28 May 09;

LONDON – Britain's cuckoo bird, known for its distinctive call, is in danger of extinction along with 51 other species, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said in a new report Thursday.

It found that 21 percent of Britain's bird species face extinction unless steps are taken to protect them, spokesman Tim Webb said. He said the cuckoo and other birds that visit Britain in the summer have suffered population loss largely due to a decrease in food and water supply in sub-Saharan Africa, where many migrate from.

The problem is difficulty in finding food, he said.

"The Sahara desert is spreading and the birds are having a hard time flying out in good condition," Webb said. "There isn't just one single problem, there are a host."

The society said the cuckoo population in Britain has declined 37 percent since 1994.

The population declines were not limited to summer migratory birds like cuckoos. Native birds such as the herring gull also made the threatened list.

Six species did see a recovery in the past seven years, however. The report said the woodlark has seen a "dramatic" increase in population, as had the stone-curlew. Webb said these birds saw healthy gains thanks to an increased effort to maintain woodlands that would allow their numbers to grow.

Webb said the inclusion of such well-known birds as the cuckoo and herring gull on the list could serve as an eye-opener to people who are unaware of the decline in bird population.

"Everyone thinks they are always there," he said of the birds. "They didn't think that such common birds would be struggling, and if nothing changes we will see them disappear."

Cuckoo Becomes One Of UK's Most Threatened Birds
Stephen Addison, PlanetArk 29 May 09;

LONDON - The cuckoo, traditional harbinger of Spring, has become one of Britain's most threatened birds, joining a "red list" of the 52 most vulnerable species.

Numbers of the bird famous for laying its eggs in others' nests are down almost 40 percent in 15 years.

Others on the danger list, which now accounts for 21 percent of all Britain's bird species, include the lapwing, yellow wagtail, the house sparrow and the starling.

The 2009 list was published on Thursday by the RSPB charity on behalf of a range of conservation bodies like the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the British Trust for Ornithology. The last survey was compiled in 2002.

The RSPB said the continued decline of widespread farmland and woodland birds is a theme which has developed since then.

Lapwing, a formerly widespread wading bird, and the hawfinch, a woodland bird largely confined to England, have both joined the red list in the latest assessment.

"An increasing number of charismatic, widespread and familiar birds are joining the list of those species most in need of help; this is scandalous," said Mark Avery, the RSPB's Conservation Director.

"When the RSPB was formed 120 years ago, few would have been concerned about the cuckoo, lapwing, starling or house sparrow.

"Now these birds are some of our greatest conservation priorities. Most shocking is the more recently observed and drastic decline of summer-visiting birds, typified by the cuckoo."

Other visitors at risk include the wood warbler, and tree pipit.

Their addition to the red list is highlighting the concern that many long-distance migratory birds nesting in Europe and wintering in Africa are increasingly in trouble, the RSPB said.

Three species of seabird join the list for the first time.

The Balearic shearwater -- a smaller relative of the albatross -- visits Britain from its Mediterranean breeding grounds regularly each autumn.

This seabird, which the RSPB said is thought to face a higher risk of global extinction even than the giant panda, is the rarest bird to regularly occur in the UK.

Highlighting concerns about the fortunes of seabirds around the northern coasts of the British Isles, the Arctic skua has joined the red list, as has the familiar herring gull.

However, six species: the stone-curlew, woodlark, quail, Scottish crossbill, bullfinch and reed bunting, have been removed from the 2002 red list, largely because of a recovery in their numbers or range, or a better understanding of their populations.

(Editing by Michael Holden)