Farmland birds

Die Naturschutzbehörde schlägt Alarm: In Brandenburg sind in den letzten Jahren die Bestände vieler Vogelarten stark zurückgegangen. Kiebitze (Vanellus vanellus), Rotschenkel (Tringa totanus), Uferschnepfen (Limosa limosa) und Bekassinen (Gallinago gallinago) sind inzwischen sogar vom Aussterben bedroht. Der Hauptgrund für das Vogelsterben ist laut Naturschutzbehörde die intensive Landwirtschaft, die ohne Rücksicht in den Brutgegenden vieler Vögel betrieben werde.

Birds living and breeding on the UK’s farmland have seen numbers decline by almost a tenth in five years, official figures show. Farmland bird populations have declined by 56% since 1970, largely due to agricultural changes including the loss of mixed farming, a switch to autumn sowing of crops, a reduction in hay meadows and the stripping out of hedgerows.

The yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola), a once common migratory bird, has been driven to the brink of extinction in recent years. The species was reclassified as“critically endangered” on the red list of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on Tuesday. The status is one step from the highest level of“extinct in the wild”. Back in 2000, the species was listed under“least concern”, the lowest level on the six-grade alert system.

The red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), once widespread over much of England and Wales, declined steadily from the middle of the 19th century onwards until the last regularly-breeding pair disappeared from Santon Downham, Norfolk, in 1989. Since that time breeding has been sporadic. It appeared that colonisation of the Scottish Highlands might be ongoing, but this faltered as with the wryneck (Jynx torquilla) , now extinct as a breeding species in the UK .

Bird numbers in Ely and Cambridgeshire have declined around British farmland by almost a tenth, according to new figures released by Defra. The latest figures released on Thursday (23rd November) by the government's environmental department reveal that wild bird numbers have dropped 9% from the years between 2010 and 2015, and by almost 70% by 1970. The figures have led the RSPB to call for a shift in how the UK operates its farming policies after it leaves the EU, to a more environmentally and sustainable friendly system.

The latest data on European common birds, brought together by the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS), shows a continued decline of European farmland birds. While the common forest birds are more or less stable over the last 10-15 years, the farmland birds show a staggering decline of 55% since 1980.

Things aren’t looking good for wild pheasants in California, where populations of the colorful game birds have fallen to less than 10 percent of what they were in the late 1990s. With pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) hunting season opening Saturday, state officials note populations of the bird have fallen dramatically over the past 19 years. Hunters reported shooting 4,828 pheasant roosters in 1998 on public lands in the Central Valley. But that number fell to 461 last year, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.