Decline of the Cuckoo
December 30, 2009 by wosuser
A report in the Daily Telegraph today says that the cuckoo is “in danger of being lost” to Britain.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the decline was “staggering”, and was now one of the most urgent conservation priorities.
“We have not got that long to work out solutions as to how we recover its ailing population,” said a spokesman.
He added: “People now go an entire year or longer without hearing the cuckoo. That would never have been the case 30 to 40 years ago. It would have been a bird on everybody’s consciousness in spring.”
The cause of the cuckoo’s decline and that of other migratory birds, including the turtle dove, nightingale and wood warbler, is not known but the research in Africa is looking at land degradation.
