By Helen BriggsBBC News
5 December 2017
Migratory birds are arriving in
the UK earlier each spring and leaving later each autumn, a report has
confirmed.
Some visitors are now appearing
more than 20 days earlier than they did in the 1960s, according to the state of
the UK's birds 2017 report.
The swallow, for instance, is
arriving 15 days earlier than 50 years ago.
Ongoing monitoring is essential
to track the future effects of a changing climate on birds, says a coalition of
wildlife organisations.
The report is by the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology
(BTO) , the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the UK's nature conservation
bodies. It pulls together data from the latest bird surveys and monitoring
studies.
The report warns that there will
be winner and losers in a changing world, with opportunities for some bird
species but higher extinction risks for others.
Some, such as the night heron,
are breeding in the UK for the first time as their range expands north, while
others, such as the snow bunting are in decline.
Dr Daniel Hayhow, lead author of
the report, said familiar species such as swallows and sand martins are
changing their migratory behaviour.
''We need to take that almost as
a warning sign,'' he told BBC News.
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