State Of The World’s Birds Report 2022

Table of Contents

The State of the World’s Birds, an annual review of environmental resources published on May 5 by nine natural sciences and avian specialists across the globe, has revealed that the population of 48% of the 10,994 surviving species of birds is declining.

State of the World’s Birds

The report is published by the Manchester Metropolitan University.
It gives an overview of the changes in the knowledge of avian biodiversity and the extent to which it is imperilled.
The study draws from BirdLife International’s latest assessment of all birds for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

Key Highlights

The threat has been attributed to almost half of the 10,994 recognised extant species of birds to the expanding human footprint on the natural world and climate change.
The study found that 5,245 or about 48% of the existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
While 4,295 or 39% of the species had stable trends, about 7% or 778 species had increasing population trends. The trend of 37 species was unknown.
It shows 1,481 or 13.5% species are currently threatened with global extinction.
The study reviewed changes in avian biodiversity using data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List to reveal the changes in fortunes of all the global bird species.

India’s Context

The trend towards declining bird diversity is just as alarming in India, where recent annual trends have been calculated for 146 species.
Of these, nearly 80% are declining in numbers, and almost 50% plummeting strongly.
Just over 6% of the species studied show stable populations and 14% show increasing population trends.
Among the most threatened species were endemic species, birds of prey, and those living in forests and grasslands.

Reason of Decline

Major reason of this reduction could be attributed to the continued growth of human footprint on the natural world, which has led to the degradation and loss of natural habitats, and the direct overexploitation of many species are the key threats to avian biodiversity.
The use of 37% of the surviving bird species as pets and 14% as food are examples of direct overexploitation.
The most significant threats to avian biodiversity are habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation coupled with human overexploitation and invasive alien species.
Also, humans eat 14% of the world’s surviving species of birds.
Apart from tropical forests, the threat of natural grasslands has been particularly worrying for North America, Europe and India.

Where the birds are threatened the most?

The more threatened bird species (86.4%) are found in tropical than in temperate latitudes (31.7%).
Such hotspots are concentrated in the tropical Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and Southeast Asian islands.

What is the importance of birds to ecosystems and culture?

Birds contribute toward many ecosystem services that either directly or indirectly benefit humanity.
These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
The functional role of birds within ecosystems as pollinators, seed-dispersers, ecosystem engineers, scavengers and predators.
They not only facilitate accrual and maintenance of biodiversity but also support human endeavours such as sustainable agriculture via pest control besides aiding other animals to multiply.
For instance, coral reef fish productivity has been shown to increase as seabird colonies recovered following rat eradication in the Chagos archipelago.
Wild birds and products derived from them are also economically important as food (meat, eggs).

What are the threats contributing to avian biodiversity loss?

The study lists eight factors, topped by land cover and land-use change.
The continued growth of human populations and of per capita rates of consumption lead directly to conversion and degradation of primary natural habitats.
Deforestation has been driven by afforestation with plantations (often of non-native species) plus land abandonment in parts of the global North, with net loss in the tropics.
The other factors are habitat fragmentation, degradation, hunting and trapping.

Recommendations

The study reports that birdwatching is a recommended form of avian conservation but warns of “local negative impacts” of bird feeding valued at $5-6 billion per year and growing by 4% annually.
Conducting reliable estimates of population abundance and change.
Novel and more effective solutions applied at scale for demand reduction for over harvested wild birds.
Eradication of populations of invasive alien species.
Shifting human societies to economically sustainable development pathways.

Question:
With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are
(a) Birds
(b) Primates
(c) Reptiles
(d) Amphibians