State of the World's Birds 2026 Warns 45% of Migratory Bird Species Are in Decline

15 September 2026National

BirdLife International released the State of the World's Birds 2026 report on 11 September 2026 at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, co-hosted with Nature Kenya. It is the first edition devoted entirely to migratory birds and the flyways they depend on, and finds that 45% of migratory bird species are in decline and roughly one in nine is threatened with extinction. Governments, scientists, NGOs and financial institutions adopted the Nairobi Flyways Declaration, pledging stronger cross-border cooperation, alongside over US$6 billion in conservation finance mobilised by development banks since 2021.

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BirdLife International, founded in 1922 as the International Council for Bird Preservation and headquartered in Cambridge (UK), is the IUCN Red List authority for birds | The Central Asian Flyway, which covers India, is one of the world's major migratory bird flyways; India hosted CMS COP13 at Gandhinagar in 2020 | The Global Environment Facility, set up in 1991, is a financial mechanism for the CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD

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