WASHINGTON – Many of the world's most common birds suffered steep population drops over recent decades, a sign of a deteriorating global environment and a biodiversity crisis, BirdLife International said Monday.

“Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity,” said Mike Rands, chief executive of the alliance of conservation groups.

Threats to bird populations include intensified industrial-scale agriculture and fishing, the spread of invasive species, logging and the replacement of natural forest with monoculture plantations, the group said in a report released in Buenos Aires.

However, Rands said that over the long term, climate change may pose the most serious stress on birds.

Regarding specific regions of the world, BirdLife said:

- in Europe, 45 percent of common birds are declining;

- in Australia, resident wading birds have seen population losses of 81 percent in the last quarter century;

- in North America, 20 common birds' populations have been halved over the last 40 years;

- in Latin America, the once-common yellow cardinal is now classified as globally endangered;

- in Asia, populations of white-rumped vultures that numbered in the millions 16 years ago have crashed by 99.9 percent;

- in the Middle East, birds like the Eurasian eagle owl are believed to be vanishing from forests.

The world's governments have committed to slowing the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but “reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed,” the report said.

More information is available online at birdlife.org/sowb.

(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)