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A powerful bird known as the pirate of the seas has declined dramatically because of avian flu, the RSPB says.
Great Skuas soar around the UK’s coasts stealing other birds’ food but their numbers in 2023 were down by 76%, the charity says in a report.
Populations of Gannets and Roseate Terns were also seriously reduced after avian flu killed thousands of wild birds in 2021-22.
The numbers of the three species had been rising before the outbreak.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu spread to wild birds in summer 2021, causing thousands of creatures to die.
The findings make it clear that avian flu is “one of the biggest immediate conservation threats faced by multiple seabirds”, says the RSBP.
“This is a wake-up call as to how serious avian flu is and it’s coming on top of multiple other threats that these species face,” says Jean Duggan, RSPB avian influenza policy assistant.
The RSPB surveyed 13 bird species in May-July 2023, and concluded that avian flu had caused the decline of Great Skuas, Gannets and Roseate Terns, and was very likely to have caused reductions of Sandwich and Common Terns.
Gannet populations are down by 25%, Roseate Terns by 21%, Sandwich Terns by 35% and Common Terns by 42% compared with a major census of bird populations in 2015-2021.
Almost the entire UK population of Great Skuas live in Scotland. In 2022, at least 2,591 Great Skuas died –
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