25 Apr 2018
It’s a worrying trend: even birds
that were once considered common and widespread are now plummeting towards
extinction. Some of the species on this list will shock you.
By Jessica Law
It’s not just elusive species on
remote, far-flung islands. These are birds that you may have come across
countless times in your day-to-day life, or birds whose image is so famous and
iconic it’s hard to believe their numbers are dwindling in the wild. But the
findings of the recently-released State of the World’s Birds 2018, our flagship
publication on the health of global bird populations, present a shocking view.
The main driver of these declines
isn’t hard to guess: humans. Here are the birds’ stories.
1. European Turtle-dove
The European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur is so familiar in Europe that
it even features in the second verse of the wildly popular Christmas carol “The
12 Days of Christmas”. Imagine if we had to change the words of the song to
reflect the loss of this much-loved species…
This bird used to be hugely
abundant and wide-ranging, migrating to Europe, Central Asia and the Middle
East from the Sahel zone of Africa. But thanks to habitat loss and hunting, the
species is now declining across its range, especially in Western Europe, and
its conservation status has recently been re-classified as Vulnerable to
extinction.
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