A report released on Monday (19th November), reveals that the UK has been losing birds at the rate of one million individuals a year since 1966. The State of UK's Birds 2012, Published by a coalition of conservation organisations and government environmental bodies, looks back over the past five decades, a period covered by the European Bird Census Council, which also examines birdlife trends.

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The latest Census Council report, released in July this year, revealed that 300 million birds have been lost across the EU since 1980. Farmland bird species suffered overall declines of 45 percent, though this figure masks fluctuations in species, with numbers of some bird species plummeting by up to 92 percent.

In this year’s State of UK's Birds report, concerns are raised about the fate of sea ducks and other seabirds, numbers of which have dropped off by between 60 and 65 percent since they were last surveyed in 1992, meaning some species are now threatened with global extinction.

Farmland birds threatened by land use change

The report reveals the UK's farmland bird population is less than half what it was in 1970. However, although the figures mirror the findings of the Census Council report released earlier in the year, the UK report shows many species are responding well to agri-environment schemes aimed to support threatened birds.

Nevertheless, the report's contributors said land use change has contributed to overall losses, meaning many birds have found nesting and foraging for food difficult, particularly in the winter 'hungry gap,' when less seeds and other edible items are available. Addressing this has been a focus of stewardship schemes, though recent findings suggest success may have been limited.

The authors of this week's report maintain that breeding birds are disappearing from the UK countryside at the rate of one pair per minute. Furthermore, in July the first study conducted into stewardship schemes revealed that patchy uptake and shortcomings in delivery have drastically impacted on the schemes' effectiveness.

Researchers writing in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that "A combination of low uptake of key in-field options that provide winter seed and a failure to cover the late-winter period effectively explains the lack of national population responses. Such issues need to be addressed before schemes like Environmental Stewardship will achieve their goals."

Nevertheless, RSPB spokesperson Grahame Madge told the BBC "We have more species breeding in the UK now than any other time in history [although] we've got 44 million fewer individual birds nesting than in the 1960s. But what we're seeing at the moment is a huge interest from farmers in trying to help the wildlife on their land."

Upon the State of UK's Birds' release, Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland said, "It is shocking and disappointing to think that over the past half century the UK has lost one in five of its individual birds. There have been many changes across the UK that have affected birds, including shifts in land-use, habitat loss, climate change, the rise in some non-native species and a lack of food.

"It is therefore vital that, where possible, we try to support declining species, be it by reducing emissions, making more space for wildlife on our farmland, undertaking further research to understand the causes of decline or, in the case of seabirds and threatened wintering species building resilience into populations through the designation and positive management of marine protected areas."

Dr Andy Musgrove of the British Trust of Ornithologists, who worked on compiling the report, commented on the figures, "We have learnt a great deal about bird numbers in the UK and, particularly, how they have changed through time. Amongst individual species, whilst there have been some winners, the number of losers is greater and the long-term picture is sobering. There is still more to learn though, and we need the continuing support of ever greater numbers of volunteer birdwatchers, on whose efforts all of these numbers are based."

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