The UK, like most other countries worldwide, has seen significant loss of its plants, animals and fungi. The data from State of Nature cover, at most, 50 years but this follows on from centuries of habitat loss, development and persecution. As a result, the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth.
View the full State of Nature report here and also see the State of Nature partnership website.
Birds of prey are mentioned on page 28 in a section on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (AI). The report states that more than 70 bird and mammal species have been affected by AI. The ongoing outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is the most serious the UK has ever recorded. A particularly virulent form has been affecting bird populations in the UK since 2021. Over the winter of 2021/22, avian flu primarily affected overwintering geese, as well as swans and ducks, some birds of prey and domestic poultry. The breeding season of 2022 saw a much wider number of bird species affected, especially seabirds, and also a number of individuals of mammal species believed to have eaten infected birds.