Nature Features

The once familiar sound of the cuckoo call is in danger of becoming history, with the bird being listed as in rapid decline and in need of urgent conservation attention.

For the first time, the cuckoo has been red listed, placing it as among the most endangered bird species in the UK.

Joining it on the red list for the first time in 2009 is the lapwing, herring gull, and Balearic shearwater, which is a visitor to the Devon and Cornwall coasts but is the rarest bird to regularly appear in the UK. In fact, it's more endangered than the giant panda.

Lapwings are on the red list for the first time

Other key bird species remain on the red list: the cirl bunting, which can only be found in numbers in South Devon, house sparrow, nightjar, song thrush, starling and skylark.

Birds which are listed in this category are globally threatened, in historic decline in the UK, and have declined by 50% or more in the past 25 years.

Nationally, 52 of the UK's 246 regularly occurring birds are now red listed - a figure which conservationists describe as "alarming." At the last survey in 2002, the number of red listed birds was 40.

Kevin Rylands, farmland bird officer for the RSPB in the South West, said: "The decline of the cuckoo has been a concern for several years and its appearance on the red list was unfortunately not a surprise.

"Each year fewer and fewer people now hear its iconic call across the British countryside and an entire generation of children have grown up never hearing this sentinel of summer."

The Balearic shearwater is a visitor to Devon

Conservationists are equally concerned over the future of the Balearic shearwater: "The review has highlighted the significance of UK marine areas for the globally threatened Balearic shearwater," said Peter Bridgewater, chair of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. 

"The importance of British waters for this seabird – where it occurs in significant numbers – was not previously known. 

"The review demonstrates the international significance of the UK, especially its marine environments,  for many species, and their conservation in the UK is an important foundation in protecting many birds across their international ranges."

The survey is carried out by thousands of volunteers with the British Trust for Ornithology.

This year's findings make grim reading. Conservation director at the RSPB,  Dr Mark Avery, said: "An increasing number of charismatic, widespread and familiar birds are joining the list of those species most in need of help; this is scandalous.

"When the RSPB was formed 120 years ago, few would have been concerned about the cuckoo, starling or house sparrow.

"Conservation works, but with a growing to-do list we have to strive even harder to retain the rich variety of wildlife that our islands possess."