Flight for Survival – Winter is coming

This autumn, BirdLife continues to tell the spectacular migratory stories of seven iconic birds. Last spring, our magnificent seven made nature’s most incredible journey north along the African-Eurasian flyway. Along the way we exposed the illegal threats they face. This second season, launching at the legendary Birdfair at the Rutland Nature Water Reserve in the UK, they start their return journey south to their wintering grounds.
Come embark again with them and with us as we follow our magnificent seven on their epic Flight for Survival.

From the smallest songbirds to the most powerful birds of prey, migration is a flight for survival. Each autumn, millions of migratory birds brave rough storms, fierce predators and possible starvation as they fly thousands of kilometres to return to the best sites to spend the winter. It is nature’s most incredible journey. But there are other dangers along the flyways – and humans are responsible.

Every year, an average of 25 000 000 birds are illegally killed across the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the Caucasus. Beloved and protected species – just looking to return to their homes for a safe, nurturing winter – are indiscriminately shot out of the sky, horrifically trapped in glue or invisible nets, or fatally poisoned. Endangered species, already hit hard by habitat loss and climate change, are being pushed closer and closer to extinction. And all in open defiance of the law.

Scientific studies led by BirdLife exposed this illegal mass slaughter to the world. And now, together with our national partners, we are working to put an end to the killing – by raising much-needed international awareness and critical funds to tackle this tragically overlooked problem.

As summer draws to a close and through to October, our ‘Flight for Survival’ campaign will tell the story of the epic migratory journey of our seven magnificent birds from Europe to Africa: the White stork, Egyptian vulture, Eurasian blackcap, Common quail, Eastern imperial eagle, the Eurasian honey-buzzard and European turtle-dove.

We will follow each of our magnificent 7 with short stories highlighting their take-off moments, our partner work to save, protect and conserve them, fun facts, a close-up look at the spot where they face their greatest man-induced peril and a look ahead to how they’ll spend their winter.

But we urgently need your help! Help us save these iconic species, and other threatened migratory birds, by following and sharing their #FlightForSurvival stories this autumn.

And you can also help us by supporting our conservation work along the African-Eurasian flyway. Birds know no borders; migration routes cross countries and even continents. This global problem, demands a global solution. That is why BirdLife International – the largest nature conservation partnership in the world – is working with our national partners to protect migratory birds at a flyway scale.  Together, we are combating human threats to migratory birds at their wintering, breeding and stopover grounds and taking targeted conservation action to end illegal killing at critical locations in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lebanon and Egypt.

Visit our campaign page www.flightforsurvival.org today to learn more about the threats facing these magnificent birds and find out how your donation can take our conservation action one step closer to ending their illegal slaughter.