Five seabird species added to the UK red list

Five seabird species have been added to the UK red list of birds most in need of conservation, the RSPB has announced.

The Arctic Tern, Leach’s Storm-petrel, Common Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and Great Skua are now at risk because of severe population declines.

It means of the 23 seabirds that make their home and raise their young in Scotland, nine are now included in the Red list with 12 on the Amber list, and just two on Green.

The newly added seabird species join the Kittiwake, Herring Gull, Roseate Tern, Arctic Skua and Puffin that were already on the Red List.

Scotland is home to over half the UK’s seabirds, including significant populations of these five species. 

Credit: Robert Simmons

And on a global scale Scotland’s Great Skua population is over half the world’s population, and our Gannets are about half the world’s total

Seabird populations are facing a growing list of threats from changes in prey availability due to climate change and overfishing, entanglement in fishing gear and invasive predators eating eggs.

The birds also recently suffered devastating declines from avian flu.

‘This latest health check on our seabird populations reveals devastating declines in the overall status of the UK’s breeding seabirds and as Scotland is the UK’s seabird stronghold it is clear that this is a house is burning moment and the time for action is now,’ said Helen McLachlan head of marine policy for RSPB Scotland.

‘As an island nation it is perhaps not surprising that we are globally important for seabird populations but what has really shocked us is the sheer number of our seabird species now on the Red list.’

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