Bird extinctions rarely have a single cause. They usually result when pressures such as habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, and hunting combine to reduce survival or reproduction. Agriculture and logging are the most frequently reported threats to globally threatened birds, while climate change adds stress and can intensify other pressures.
How do pressures lead to bird extinction?
A species becomes more vulnerable when fewer birds survive, reproduce, or find the conditions they need. Those changes can build over time until the population is too small to recover. The specific pathway differs by species and location, and a historical extinction can rarely be attributed to just one factor.
It helps to distinguish pressures that kill birds directly from those that change the places and conditions they depend on. Hunting and trapping cause direct mortality. Habitat change can remove food, nesting sites, or shelter, while climate change and severe weather can alter conditions or compound other stresses.
Which threats affect the most globally threatened birds?
BirdLife International’s 2025 update reports the following proportions of assessed globally threatened bird species affected by each threat:
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| Threat | Share of globally threatened bird species affected |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | 73% |
| Logging | 50% |
| Invasive alien species | 43% |
| Hunting and trapping | 41% |
| Climate change | 37% |
These are overlapping categories: one species may face several threats, so the percentages cannot be added to make a total. They describe threats recorded for assessed globally threatened species, not the share of all bird extinctions caused by each factor. BirdLife also notes that changes in recorded threat prevalence can reflect improved knowledge as well as real-world change. BirdLife International’s 2025 update
How does habitat loss contribute?
Habitat conversion removes or replaces habitat
Conversion makes an area entirely or almost entirely unsuitable for its original wildlife. Agricultural expansion, forestry, and large infrastructure development can replace the places birds use to feed, nest, and shelter. When those resources disappear, a population may have fewer places to live and reproduce.
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Habitat degradation makes remaining habitat less suitable
Habitat can remain in place yet lose some of its ability to support a particular population. Logging, for example, can degrade and fragment forest without clearing every tree. Such changes may reduce food or nesting opportunities and lower reproductive success. The effects vary: a change that seriously harms one species may affect another differently.
Habitat conversion and degradation often interact with other pressures. BirdLife gives deforestation combined with climate change as an example that can increase the risk of extreme wildfire. BirdLife’s explanation of habitat and other pressures
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat role does climate change play?
Climate change can alter environmental conditions on which birds depend, while severe weather can add immediate stress. These pressures may operate alongside habitat loss rather than replacing it. BirdLife’s 2025 figure—37% of globally threatened birds affected—measures an overlapping assessed threat, not the proportion of extinctions directly caused by climate change.
Historical records offer a different kind of evidence. A 2012 analysis found that the combined category “climate change and severe weather” became more prominent among recorded avian extinctions over roughly the previous century. Because the category combines climate change with severe weather, and concerns historical records, it does not establish climate change as the largest current driver. Duncan, Boyer and Blackburn’s 2012 PLOS ONE analysis
Why do other causes and geography matter?
Invasive species and direct mortality
Introduced species can harm birds through predation, disease, competition, or habitat degradation. Hunting and trapping remove birds directly. In BirdLife’s 2025 assessment, invasive alien species affect 43% of globally threatened birds and hunting and trapping affect 41%; these threat categories overlap with one another and with habitat and climate pressures.
Historical extinction patterns differed by setting
The 2012 analysis covered 279 extinct or possibly extinct “ultrataxa” since 1500: 141 species and 138 subspecies. In that dataset, 78.7% of recorded species extinctions occurred on oceanic islands. The leading drivers varied by setting: agriculture-linked habitat loss and degradation were most important on continents, hunting on continental islands, and invasive alien species on oceanic islands. These are patterns in a historical dataset, not rules for every island or mainland species. The study’s methods and findings
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Current threat assessments and historical extinction analyses answer different questions. The first identifies pressures affecting species assessed as threatened today; the second examines factors associated with extinctions recorded over a long historical period. Their rankings should not be treated as interchangeable.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do recent bird trends show?
BirdLife International’s 2026 State of the World’s Birds launch reports that 45% of migratory bird species are declining and one in nine migratory species is threatened with extinction. These figures apply specifically to migratory birds, not all bird species. The report says species dependent on marine habitats, forests, and coastal wetlands are faring particularly poorly. BirdLife International’s 2026 report launch
The same report says the Slender-billed Curlew was officially declared extinct in 2025; its last confirmed record was in Morocco in February 1995. BirdLife describes it as the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. It also reports that coordinated action across countries halted the decline of the Egyptian Vulture’s Balkan breeding population. These examples show both the seriousness of losses and the potential value of coordinated conservation, but they do not prove that one intervention will work identically for every species.
What can help prevent further extinctions?
Conservation needs to protect and restore habitat while addressing other pressures affecting a species. For migratory birds, a single protected site may not be enough: birds depend on linked habitats across their full flyway, so action at multiple points along the route can matter. BirdLife’s Egyptian Vulture example illustrates the potential of coordinated, multi-country efforts.
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