Europe has an estimated 421 million fewer birds on Monday than 30 years ago, with the majority of losses from the most common species such as house sparrows, skylarks and grey partridges, a new study has found.
However, the numbers of some less common birds have risen, according to researchers.
The study shows a decrease of 421 million individual birds over 30 years.
Around 90 per cent of these losses were from the 36 most common and widespread species, including house sparrows, skylarks, grey partridges and starlings, highlighting the need for greater efforts to halt the continent-wide declines of familiar countryside birds.
“It is very worrying that the most common species of bird are declining rapidly because it is this group of birds that people benefit from the most,” said Richard Inger from the University of Exeter.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that interaction with the natural world and wildlife is central to human wellbeing and significant loss of common birds could be quite detrimental to human society,” said Inger.
The majority of the declines can be attributed to considerable losses from relatively few common birds, but not all common species are declining, researchers said.