BirdLife International today publishes the State of the World’s Birds report at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi. BirdLife Partners, NGOs, governments and financial institutions sign the Nairobi Flyways Declaration, as Regional Flyway Initiatives spanning Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas move into delivery.
Nairobi, Kenya, 11 September 2026
BirdLife International today launched the State of the World’s Birds report at the Global Flyways Summit, co-hosted by Nature Kenya. Published every four years, this is the first edition focused entirely on migratory birds and the flyways they depend on.
The summit also saw key stakeholders including governments, scientists, NGOs, conservationists and financial institutions sign the Nairobi Flyways Declaration, committing to stepping up efforts and cooperation to protect migratory birds and their habitats across borders, alongside more than $6 billion in conservation finance being mobilised by development banks since 2021. Together, these milestones signal a step-change in coordinated global response for flyway conservation.
State of the World’s Birds: the findings
Egyptian Vulture © Ondrej Prosicky
Far Eastern Curlew © Wang LiQiang, Shutterstock
European bee-eater © Richard Cff, Shutterstock
The report’s findings are stark, 45% of migratory bird species are in decline. One in nine is threatened with extinction. The 2025 extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, last recorded at a Moroccan lagoon in February 1995, marks the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries, with six other migratory species confirmed or suspected to have been lost in the last 150 years. Species dependent on marine habitats, forests and coastal wetlands are faring particularly poorly; seabirds and shorebirds are among the most threatened.
Yet the report also documents hope. These declines stem from well-understood, human-caused factors: invasive species, agricultural intensification, climate change, and unsustainable hunting. When farming, fishing and land practices are addressed across a whole migration route, rather than at single sites, bird populations respond. For example, multi-country action for Egyptian Vulture has halted the decline of the Balkan breeding population.
