International conservation organisation Birdlife has recently released State of the World’s Birds, Indicators for our changing world. A comprehensive overview of current and emerging conservation issues, State of the World’s Birds compiles international data and makes key findings such as “one in eight of all bird species is threatened with global extinction.”
The Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross is one of the seabirds affected by house mice on Gough Island, as detailed in the State of the World’s Birds case studies. Image Credit: “Tristan Albatross” © 2009 Michael Clarke Stuff, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
While the report presents a broad overview from sources worldwide, there is a particular focus on islands. One pressure identified is that invasive species are spreading and they’re a particular threat on islands. Birdlife goes into further detail in the case studies that accompany State of the World’s Birds.
Island-focused case studies
- Small island birds are most at risk from invasive alien species
- Native birds on Gough Island are being devastated by house mice
- Endemic birds on Christmas Island are being devastated by introduced ants
State of the World’s Birds
View the report online or download the PDF.
Further reading
