Parasitic jaeger / Arctic skua / parasitic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) flying over tundra. (Photo by: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images). ONE of Scotland’s rarest seabirds requires urgent action to halt its decline, according to a new report published yesterday. Arctic skuas are known as the “pirates of the seabird world” because they steal their food from other birds. The birds, which breed only in Scotland in the UK, take advantage of the diving skills of other seabirds to catch small fish such as sandeels, before giving chase and forcing the pursued bird to drop its meal. The State of the UK’s Birds 2020 (SUKB) report shows the species, which breeds in the far north of Scotland and Northern Isles, has suffered an 80% decline since 1986 and a 30% decline in the last decade.
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Thu 17 Dec 2020 02.00 EST
The willow tit has become Britain’s fastest declining resident bird, and one of half a dozen imperilled woodland species, according to the definitive survey of the country’s birds.
Numbers of the diminutive tit, a subspecies unique to the UK, have plummeted by 94% since 1970, and by a third since 2008.
The willow tit, which lives in dense birch thickets close to wetlands or water, has almost entirely vanished from south-east England and now survives mainly in post-industrial sites such as former coalmines, north-east of Derbyshire.
Woodland birds have slumped by 27% since the 1970s and are continuing to dramatically decline, falling by 7% over the past five years, according to the new report. The breeding populations of five rare forest-dwelling species – lesser spotted woodpecker, lesser redpoll, spotted flycatcher, capercaillie and marsh tit – are now less than a quarter of what they were 50 years ago.