In the British Isles, we are in the privileged position of sitting on a bird superhighway – a flyway – that supports a rich diversity of migratory bird traffic. Swallows and Swifts arrive for the summer. Whooper Swans and Knot join us for the winter. Many waders stop for a while, using the British Isles as a vital pitstop in spring or autumn before continuing onwards. But why are the British Isles so important for migratory birds and what are the RSPB and partners doing to help them? Guy Anderson, migratory bird expert at the RSPB takes up the story.
Wild Isles is about to launch on our screens – showcasing the diverse range of habitats and species that our islands support. The British Isles host wildlife spectacles that rank among the best in the world, and many of them involve migratory species. Think vast flocks of Knot swirling across the skies of The Wash. Or thousands of Gannets, Kittiwakes, shearwaters, petrels, terns and other seabirds returning to their nesting cliffs and islands. But what makes the British Isles so important for these migratory birds?
A ‘wader spectacular’ at RSPB Snettisham Nature Reserve, Norfolk - just one of many magnificent sights that migratory birds provide when they visit or shores. © Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com).
Location, location, locationWe sit at the north-west corner of Europe, strongly influenced by the Atlantic. This gives us a relatively mild, oceanic climate, making our islands a very attractive destination for wildlife on the move, at all times of year.
Our location and climate make the British Isles a key point on a bird superhighway, called the East Atlantic Flyway. This flyway connects countries and continents from southern Africa all the way up to Arctic Canada and Russia. In spring we welcome many returning species from the south. We also channel migratory birds in three directions – north-west to Iceland, Greenland and the Canadian Arctic; north-east to Scandinavia; and east to northern Europe, the Baltic region and Siberia. In autumn, we form a funnel for streams of birds returning southward and westward from these regions. Some stay with us. Others keep on going through south-west Europe and into Africa. Millions of birds flow back and forth every year along the flyway and the British Isles and their rich variety of habitats are both a key destination and pitstop along this route.
In terms of importance for wildlife globally, this is where the British Isles punches well above its weight. For example we support a significant proportion of the world population of Barnacle Goose, Pink-footed Goose, Brent Goose, Manx Shearwater, Great Skua, Red Knot, Eurasian Oystercatcher and Bar-tailed Godwit and internationally important numbers (>1% of the global population) of many others.
As well as being ecologically important, our migratory birds are culturally important too. Their arrivals and departures are key points in nature’s calendar and have been recognised and recorded by humans for millennia. Who doesn’t look forward to the arrival of Swifts and Swallows, heralding the return of warmer and brighter days in spring? The earliest known written musical score in English history is a song about Cuckoos. One of the most frequently referenced birds in the works of William Shakespeare is the Turtle Dove. It is no coincidence that these are all migratory birds.
A rich and varied service station As Wild Isles will show, the British Isles is blessed with a wonderful variety of wildlife habitats, all supporting migratory birds. This diversity of habitats is also the product of our climate and location, as well as geology and topography.
Our coasts, the fringes between land and sea are of utmost importance for migratory birds – islands, sea cliffs, sandy beaches, salt marshes, mudflats and estuaries provide birds with places to feed, nest and shelter.
It doesn’t stop there – we have a rich marine environment, freshwater wetlands, heathland, broadleaved woodlands, pine forests and montane habitats and others. These habitats provide a wide range of birds with an array of feeding, nesting and wintering opportunities – from Pied Flycatchers in Atlantic oak woodlands, to Sandwich Terns on islands and beaches and Pink-footed Geese on farmland and wetlands.
Like other spring arrivals, Pied Flycatchers travel thousands of kilometres from sub-Saharan Africa to breed and raise their chicks in the UK. In the case of the Pied Flycatcher, our broadleaved woodlands make a welcome spring home. © Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com).
Taking action for migratory speciesWe are lucky that our islands support so many migratory bird populations. But we know that many of these are in trouble and we must act now if we are to protect them. Migratory birds are exposed to a wide variety of threats – these include loss and degradation of habitats due to changes in land and marine use, climate change, the impacts of non-native invasive species, collisions with man-made structures, unsustainable hunting and illegal killing pose further threats.
We need to protect and support migratory birds when they are here. We do this by protecting and managing our own nature reserves, we call for action to protect all key sites for migratory birds, we work with partners to advise them on how to provide suitable habitats and we advocate for changes to Government policy affecting land and marine use.
We also need to work with others to ensure that when they’re not in the British Isles, migratory birds are safe. The RSPB works with BirdLife International and other partners along the whole East Atlantic Flyway to safeguard the future of our shared migratory birds.
Barnacle Geese in flight – travelling to winter in the UK from Greenland and Svalbard. © David Andrews (rspb-images.com).
Saving nature on a flyway-scaleMigratory birds need networks of safe, suitable areas all along their flyways. Therefore, if we want to keep our isles wild and spectacular and full of these birds then we must consider their conservation on their scale and that is the scale of their whole flyway. There is no point in spending lots of time and money on actions here to save a species, if their real conservation problems lie elsewhere and are not being addressed. The corollary also applies, there is little point in just blaming possible factors operating elsewhere when we already have good evidence that these birds face serious threats here. For some migratory birds, we know that conservation problems both here and elsewhere must be addressed simultaneously if we stand a good chance of recovering their population.
Here are two examples of how we’re working on the flyway:
Securing a safer migration for Turtle DovesAll Turtle Doves that breed in the UK and elsewhere in western Europe migrate down through France and Iberia, before crossing into Morocco and reaching their wintering grounds in Africa. The UK breeding population (estimated at 2,100 territories in 2021) is part of the much larger western European flyway population, which in total numbers around 1.5 million territories. Turtle Doves have been traditionally hunted in France, Spain and Portugal during the southward migration period. Recent evidence shows that during the 2010s, the numbers being hunted – more than one million birds per year across these three countries – were unsustainable. Working with a consortium of partners to deliver a contract with the European Commission, the RSPB played a leading role in generating the scientific evidence and in developing a sustainable hunting management system for Turtle Doves. The consortium recommended at least four years of no hunting to allow the entire western European flyway population of Turtle Doves to recover. The EC have accepted this recommendation and as a result, hunting bans in France, Spain and Portugal in 2021 and 2022 have effectively saved the lives of two million Turtle Doves. This great progress being made with hunting gives the population much needed breathing space and provides a golden opportunity to kick start their recovery by improving their breeding season habitats. The RSPB is working with hundreds of farmers, land managers and communities to deliver this in the UK.
We’re working with partners to secure both better breeding habitats and a safer migration for Turtle Doves. © Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com).
Wader conservation in IcelandTravel further north to Iceland and the RSPB has embarked on an exciting new area of work with bird conservation organisation Fuglavernd (BirdLife Iceland) to restore, better manage and where possible, protect important breeding sites for migratory waterbirds. Iceland holds important breeding grounds for many wading birds as well as other waterbirds - swans, geese and ducks. Many of these migratory species use sites in the UK for passage and wintering – including Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Whooper Swan, Whimbrel, Golden Plover and others. We’re working on a range of activities including restoring degraded peatlands and rivers in a 52,000ha watershed at Myrar in western Iceland; seeking collaborative approaches (with the forestry sector and regional authorities) to better implement the Icelandic government’s ambitious tree planting programme, and scaling up existing coastal wetland sites management through European Commission funding and stronger joint activities with the Convention of Arctic Fauna and Flora.
Many of the Redshank that spend the winter in the UK will have spent the summer, and raised their chicks, in Iceland. © Andy Hay (rspb-images.com).
These are just a few of the many projects that the RSPB is involved in to secure a safer future for migratory bird species. You too can help these birds by supporting conservation organisations to protect the special places for migratory birds – those places that give us the finest spectacles. Help migratory birds in your own communities, for example get together to provide homes for nesting Swifts or help your local community manage and protect your local nature reserves including your nearest RSPB reserves. Wildlife-friendly gardening and management of local greenspaces can help your local migratory birds. If enough people do this over the British Isles, we can make a difference.
The wild flyway Our isles are all the richer thanks to the many species of migratory birds that spend part of their year with us. Some of the very best, and genuinely world-class, wildlife spectacles in the British Isles rely on a fully functioning, well-protected flyway, on which we occupy a key position. The wildness of the British Isles depends on the wildness of this flyway, and vice versa.
To learn more about our nature, watch the BBC’s Wild Isles series, airing this weekend and discover the many wildlife spectacles these islands have to offer.
Within a few weeks our skies will be ringing with a new set of songs and calls as migratory birds that have travelled thousands of kilometres reach us, to join us for the summer or maybe to pass through on their way further north. Others will depart to return again in autumn. Migratory bird traffic is heading towards rush hour – the service station that is the British Isles is going to get very busy. Get out there and enjoy it, I certainly will be.
Continue reading• How countries are coming together to save coastal habitats, including for one of the world's rarest migratory birds • Crossing borders and continents for conservation – the story of the Egyptian Vulture • Conserving birds on a continental scale – the Pan-African Ornithological Congress
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