Nearly half of the migratory bird species are in decline.
This is according to a report titled '
State of the world’s birds: A focus on migratory species and their flyways'.The report, which was launched on Friday during the Global Flyway Summit at Safari Park Hotel, shows that one in nine of the species is threatened with extinction.
Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, the Honorary President of BirdLife International, said countries stand at a turning point.
"Migratory birds do not recognise borders. They connect Asia to Africa, the Arctic to the tropics. The Nairobi Flyways Declaration acknowledges this reality. I am proud to see the scientific community, conservation organisations and finance institutions united behind the science. This is the moment we have been waiting for," she said.
Takamado, whose love for birds started at a tender age, said every bird in the skies is a guest from somewhere, reiterating that their flyways must be protected at all costs.
“Birds are an inspiration to all humanity in the arts,in paintings, in music, in poetry, in literature.Birds have always been an inspiration to people. When I was a child, I just enjoyed collecting feathers,listening to birdsong, and finding birds' nests.”
Takamado said the world is very interconnected, and birds do act as an important indicatorof the state of the environment.
“I feel that my involvement with the environment is at the basis of everything else that I do,because unless we can keep the environment this way,all the other work we do will be ignored.”
The declines stem from well-understood, human-caused factors: invasive species, agricultural intensification, climate change and unsustainable hunting.
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.
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.
BirdLife International chief scientist Dr Stuart Butchart said billions of birds undertakephenomenal feats of endurance on their journeys twice a year.
“From arctic turns, flying from pole to pole,chinstrap penguins swim 4,700kmfrom their breeding colonies to seasonal feeding areas,while bar-tailed goblins can fly nonstop13,000km from New Zealand to Alaskain a single flight,” he said.
Butchart, who is also senior editor of State of the World’s Birds, said migratory seabirds, shorebirds and those using the East Asian-Australasian flywayare of particular concern.
“We've also assessed the condition of most important sitesfor migratory birds over the last 10 years.58 per cent of them are in poor or very poor condition, and the degradation of those sitesand the wider habitats the migratory species rely onis pushing them towards extinction.”
Butchart said solutions to reverse the threats are known.
“Evidence-based interventions can restore habitats,prevent extinctions, and enable populations to recover.As an example, the European turtle dovewas in severe decline, a species that breeds in Europe,winters in the Mediterranean Africa,” he said.
"The coordinated four-year moratorium was agreed across France, Spain and Portugal, and since 2021, the Western flyway population has risen by more than 40 per cent."
Butchart said across all flyways, protection of the key siteshas grown from 11 per cent on average in 1980 to 49 per cent today.
BirdLife International CEO Martin Harper said the Nairobi Declaration that was signed urge governments and finance institutionsto mobilise the funding necessary.
Harper said a healthy natural environmentunderpins our prosperity.
He said the biggest risk to the economyis both extreme weather events as a result of climate change as well as biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.
“But sadly, there is still something like a $900 billion gapin biodiversity fundingto meet some of the big international commitmentsthat have been made,” he said.
Nature Kenya executive director Dr Paul Matiku called for enhanced collaboration to reverse the threats.
He said Kenya sits in the middle of one of the largest migratory routes:the African Eurasian Flyway.
"The Nairobi Declaration and finance commitments recognise that African nations are not just stakeholders: we are stewards of solutions."
During the summit, a number of financial commitments were made.
Three multilateral development banks are integrating flyway conservation into their lending frameworks, bringing commitments made since 2021 to more than $6 billion.
The Asian Development Bank is mobilising $3 billion over the next decade to protect at least 50 priority wetlands across the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, supporting nearly 200 million people who depend on these ecosystems.
In the Americas, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean is mobilising $3–5 billion through 2050 to safeguard more than 30 landscapes and seascapes.
The World Bank and BirdLife are mobilising several billion dollars across Africa, Europe and Asia along flyways used by more than two billion migratory birds.
In June 2026, the Global Environment Facility approved the Global Flyways Grant Mechanism, providing $8.97 million in direct grants and $107 million in co-financing for conservation and restoration across nine million hectares of wetlands, benefiting an estimated 330,000 people.
