MANY of the rare breeding birds found in Scotland are at a high risk of extinction, based on projections of how climate will become less suitable for these species, according to a new report.
The State of the UK’s Birds 2017 (SUKB) – the one-stop shop for all the latest results from bird surveys and monitoring studies – this year highlights how many of the UK’s species across the four countries, are already being affected by climate change, responding to UK average summer temperatures having increased by nearly one degree centigrade since the 1980s.
The report highlights how species are moving northwards within the UK, shifting their distributions as temperatures rise and the habitats change. Many of the rarer breeding birds are at a high risk of extinction in the UK, based on projections of how climate will become less suitable for these species. For species such as the dotterel, whimbrel, common scoter and snow bunting, whose UK breeding populations are found almost entirely in Scotland, population declines have been considerable already. Visit www.obantimes.co.uk for full details.