KEY POINTS:
The birds of the world are in serious trouble, and common species are now in decline all over the globe, according to a comprehensive review released yesterday.
From the turtle doves of Europe to the vultures of India, from the bobwhite quails of the United States 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 with an accompanying website at the BirdLife World Conservation Conference in Buenos Aires, 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.
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.
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 past 25 years.
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 past four decades, while in Asia, white-rumped vulture numbers have crashed by 99.9 per cent and the species is critically endangered.
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," said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's chief executive.
VANISHING SPECIES A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM
EUROPE
An analysis of 124 of Europe's common birds over 26 years shows 56 species (45 per cent) have declined across 20 countries, with farmland birds badly hit.
AFRICA
In just three decades, 11 eagle species fell by 86-98 per cent in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. And six large vulture species - including the once widespread Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus - have plummeted.
MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA
Many common species such as the Eurasian eagle owl Bubo bubo are under pressure.
ASIA
White-rumped vultures Gyps bengalensis have fallen by 99.9 per cent since 1992 and 62 per cent of migratory waterbird species are declining or extinct.
NORTH AMERICA
Twenty common species have fallen by over 50 per cent in the past 40 years. Northern bobwhite, Colinus virginianus, has been hit the worst, with an 82 per cent decline.
PACIFIC
Resident Australian waders have fallen by 81 per cent in 25 years. Seabirds are threatened at a faster rate globally than all other groups. Of the 22 species of albatross, 19 are threatened with extinction, including the critically endangered Chatham albatross Thalassarche eremita.
- INDEPENDENT
www.birdlife.org
