For decades the scientific community has been raising the alarm about the decline of birds, victims simultaneously of intensive agriculture and, today, of climate change. The use of pesticides – which has grown exponentially over time as companies strive to remain internationally competitive – has led to what a study from the University of Montpellier, in France, has described as a "hecatomb".

800 million birds lost in Europe since 1980

The analysis, published in 2024, was carried out across 28 European nations and covered the period from 1980 to 2016. This "made it possible to assess 170 different species, living in the wild and directly exposed to pollution, climate change and hunting". The conclusion is unequivocal: the overall decline of birds in Europe amounted to roughly one quarter over the 36 years examined. That is equivalent to approximately 800 million fewer individuals – a loss of 20 million per year.

Specifically, 18 per cent of birds living in forest areas have been lost, 25 per cent of those found in urban centres, and above all 57 per cent of those that normally inhabit agricultural zones – confirming the damaging impact of pesticides. The figures have grown over time, in step with the transformation of the agricultural sector: today only 17 per cent of European land is not contaminated by such products, with large agribusiness companies playing an increasingly dominant role. And land sealing must not be overlooked either: since 2009 it has affected 300,000 hectares of theoretically arable land.

Climate, intensive agriculture and soil artificialization all weigh on the decline of birds

Moreover, as early as 2024 another study had highlighted how 144 species of birds had disappeared in just the past ten years. And global warming is also exerting enormous pressure. Species living at northern latitudes, accustomed to fairly cold climates, are migrating ever further northward in an attempt to escape temperatures that have become too high for them. This process affects their reproduction, which is becoming increasingly difficult: in the case of the willow tit, a small passerine bird, the University of Montpellier study reports a loss of 79 per cent of individuals.

For other species, it is soil artificialization that takes the heaviest toll, as these are fauna that cannot adapt to polluted and completely transformed habitats. The common swift has for this reason lost 17 per cent of its population. Vincent Devictor, ecologist and co-author of the study, which was published in the journal Pnas in 2023, explained that science "has been sounding the alarm for 70 years".

The superb fairy-wren destined to disappear within the next 30 years due to climate change

Another study, conducted by Australian and Chinese researchers, focused on the impact of global warming on the superb fairy-wren, also known as the superb blue wren. For this species, the risk is of reaching extinction within the next 33 years. Their analysis, published in the journal Nature Communications, indicated that this dramatic outcome is the result of numerous cumulative effects of climate change that have built up over the years and struck their natural habitat.

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An iconic bird is on the verge of extinction due to many small climate change impacts to its habitat

A new study has found that a familiar Australian backyard bird, superb fairy-wrens, could disappear from a long-watched population within 30 to 40 years earth.com/news/an-iconic…

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The analysis of an area of nearly 60 hectares near Canberra, Australia, focused on reproduction rates, deaths and the arrival of new individuals, making it possible to produce projections through to 2100. The study explains that springs with increasingly low rainfall reduce the fertility rate, while excessively warm winters disrupt the seasonal availability of nutrients.

"Various effects of climate change, taken together, are catastrophic"

"We found that, even if the individual effects of climate change on birds are weak or moderate when taken one by one, their combined effect becomes catastrophic", explained Andrew Cockburn, one of the authors of the research. The only solution is to limit as much as possible the rise in average global temperature – as the international community has formally committed to doing, albeit without achieving the hoped-for results.