Intensive Farming 'Is Main Cause Of Bird Decline'

The use of pesticides and fertilisers in intensive agriculture is the biggest cause of the dwindling number of birds in Europe, according to scientists

- Damien Gayle

Compared with a generation ago, 550 million fewer birds fly over the continent, with their decline well documented. But, until now, the relative importance of various pressures on populations was not known.

More than 50 researchers, analysing data collected by thousands of citizen scientists in 28 countries over nearly four decades, found that it is intensive agriculture, above all, that is behind the decline in Europe's birds.

The number of wild birds of all kinds has fallen by more than a quarter since 1980; this decline deepened to more than half among farmland species. Birds that rely on invertebrates for food, including swifts, yellow wagtails and spotted flycatchers, were the hardest hit.