Nearly half of world’s migratory birds in decline, BirdLife warns

World animal welfareAnimalsclimate crisisTop News Nearly half of world’s migratory birds in decline, BirdLife warns Bird Migratory Relevant News Nearly half of world’s migratory birds in decline, BirdLife warns 11 September 2026 Odyssey Cybersecurity and Airia announce strategic collaboration to enable secure enterprise AI adoption 11 September 2026 ACCEPT calls for police probe into Queer Wave banner vandalism 11 September 2026 newsroom 11 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber A new report from BirdLife International has found that nearly half of the world’s migratory bird species are in decline. The State of the World’s Birds 2026 report was presented today at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Published every four years, the report is, for the first time, dedicated exclusively to migratory birds and the routes they depend on, BirdLife said in its announcement. The findings carry particular weight for Cyprus. The island’s location in the Eastern Mediterranean makes it a key stopover for migratory birds travelling between Europe, Asia and Africa every spring and autumn, BirdLife said. The island’s wetlands, coastal areas, farmland and other natural habitats serve as critical resting and refuelling points during these demanding journeys. According to the report, 45 per cent of migratory bird species are seeing their populations decline, and one in nine species is threatened with extinction. Species that depend on marine ecosystems, forests and coastal wetlands face the greatest risk, with seabirds and wading birds among the most threatened groups. The main causes are well established and largely linked to human activity, BirdLife noted: habitat loss and degradation, the intensification of agriculture, climate change, invasive species, and the unsustainable or illegal killing of birds. At the same time, the report shows that targeted conservation action can reverse these trends, BirdLife said, particularly when it is coordinated across a species’ entire migratory route rather than carried out piecemeal in individual areas or countries. The Egyptian Vulture, a species that passes through Cyprus during migration, is cited in the report as an example: coordinated action across several countries has helped halt the decline of the species’ breeding population in the Balkans. A migratory route is not simply a line on a map, BirdLife said, but a network of areas birds rely on at different stages of their journey: breeding grounds, stopover points for feeding and resting, and wintering sites. Losing a single critical link in that chain can have effects felt thousands of kilometres away. That, BirdLife Cyprus said, is what makes protecting the areas used by migratory birds in Cyprus so important. The conservation and proper management of wetlands such as Akrotiri, along with other significant natural areas on the island, is not just a matter of Cypriot biodiversity, the organisation added, but part of a much larger international effort to conserve migratory populations that connect countries and continents. At the Global Flyways Summit, governments, scientists, conservation organisations and financial institutions signed the Nairobi Flyways Declaration. The declaration recognises that migratory birds do not observe borders, and that protecting them requires coordinated action between countries, agencies and sectors, according to BirdLife. Development banks and international financial institutions are now mobilising billions of dollars to protect and restore critical ecosystems along major migratory routes in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, BirdLife’s announcement said. For a country like Cyprus, which lies along the world’s largest migratory flyway, the message of the new report is especially timely, BirdLife Cyprus noted: the survival of migratory birds depends on whether they continue to find safe places to rest and feed at every stage of their journey. Protecting these areas in Cyprus, BirdLife Cyprus said, is the country’s own link in a chain that stretches across entire continents. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Odyssey Cybersecurity and Airia announce strategic collaboration to enable secure enterprise AI adoption ACCEPT calls for police probe into Queer Wave banner vandalism Water fault leaves parts of Limassol without supply Larnaca bomb threat: Minister says plane grounded until cleared Journalists aren’t second-class citizens The goal is clear: clean seas, everywhere Get a taxi, dear Androulla! Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.