Climate Change Appeal

Globally, up to 7% of birds are considered to be at risk of extinction due to climate change. This appeal helped us to continue data collection through our long-term monitoring schemes and track the ongoing impacts of climate change.

Please note that this appeal is now closed to donations. If you’d like to support our work, you can donate to a current appeal >

Why we launched the Climate Change Appeal

Climate change is one of the most significant threats to biodiversity. Globally, 7% of birds are threatened with extinction due to climate change, and this impact is projected to become increasingly severe in the future.

More than 25 years ago, we began documenting the impacts of climate change on the timing of bird breeding. Since then we have continued to gather evidence about how climate change is affecting our species and populations through our large-scale and long-term monitoring schemes, supported by our network of amazing volunteers. Importantly, we are now informing policies and conservation management strategies to help species and habitats adapt to climate change. You can read more about this work in our climate change case study.

Our findings underpin the report that we launched at the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, Climate change and the UK’s birds. The report was clear: climate change is already affecting our bird populations, but there are significant gaps in our understanding for many species. We launched the Climate Change Appeal in 2021 to help fund a continuing programme of work to research the wide-ranging effects of climate change, and how we can support birds and habitats to adapt.

Our work on Climate Change and the UK’s birds

Support for the Climate Change Appeal has helped us continue our long-term monitoring schemes, and vitally, the reporting from those schemes that enables us to continue to track the ongoing impacts of climate change.

This has included work that continues to improve our understanding of how some of our much-loved and declining migrants such as the Willow Warbler, Swallow and Cuckoo are responding to climate change, as well as summarising the ongoing impacts of climate change on breeding birds more broadly.

We have also continued to improve our understanding of future vulnerabilities to climate change, and in particular, to highlight the high vulnerability of our internationally important breeding seabird populations, which are monitored by the BTO/JNCC Seabird Monitoring Programme, and of migratory birds around the world. More broadly, we have also been considering the potential impacts of climate change on invertebrates, and how that can impact many of the bird populations around us.

Work with Natural England has considered the vulnerability of Special Protection Areas in England to climate change and what that means for their future conservation. That leads on to what is now an increasing focus of BTO work, which is to inform conservation responses to climate change. This includes continuing to develop the evidence that appropriate conservation action can play a key part in helping species, habitats and systems adapt to climate change, and critically, how to monitor and evaluate the success of those conservation interventions.

Scientific publications

Climate change drives differing trends for Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler populations

Martay, B., Pearce-Higgins, J. W., Harris, S. J., & Gillings, S. 2023. Breeding ground temperature rises, more than habitat change, are associated with spatially variable population trends in two species of migratory bird. Ibis 165(1): 34–54

Climate change, insect abundance and Swallows

Martay, B., Leech, D. I., Shortall, C. R., Bell, J. R., Thackeray, S. J., Hemming, D. L., & Pearce-Higgins, J. W. 2023. Aerial insect biomass, but not phenological mismatch, is associated with chick survival of an insectivorous bird. Ibis 165(3): 790–807

Migration stopover hinders the Cuckoo’s response to climate change

Davies J.G., Kirkland M., Miller M.G.R., Pearce-Higgins J.W., Atkinson P.W. & Hewson C.M. 2023. Spring arrival of the Common Cuckoo at breeding grounds is strongly determined by environmental conditions in tropical Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290: 20230580

The future impacts of climate change on threatened seabirds

Davies J.G., Humphreys E.M., Evans T., Howells R.J., O’Hara-Murray R. & Pearce-Higgins J.W. 2023.Seabird abundances projected to decline in response to climate change in Britain and Ireland. Marine Ecology Progress Series 725: 121–140

The impact of climate change on migratory species

Williams, J.M., Scott, S.E., Galbraith, C.A., Martay, B., Macphie, K.H., Hereward, H.F.R., Barton, M.G., Bowgen, K.M., Pearce-Higgins, J.W. & Robinson, R.A. 2023. Climate change and migratory species: a review of impacts, conservation actions, indicators and ecosystem services. JNCC (ISBN: 978-0-86139-000-7)

Are the declines of birds and invertebrates linked by climate change?

Pearce-Higgins, J. W., & Morris, R. K. A. 2022. Declines in invertebrates and birds – could they be linked by climate change? Bird Study 69(3–4): 59–71

Assessing the vulnerability of Special Protection Areas to climate change

Duffield, S. J., Morecroft, M. D., Pearce-Higgins, J. W., & Taylor, S. D. 2024. Species- or habitat- based assessments of vulnerability to climate change? Informing climate change adaptation in Special Protection Areas for birds in England. Biological Conservation 291: 110460

The first quantitative global assessment of biodiversity conservation interventions for climate change adaptation

Bowgen, K., Kettel, E., Butchart, S., Carr, J., Foden, W., Magin, G., Morecroft, M., Smith, R., Stein, B., Sutherland, W., Thaxter, C., & Pearce-Higgins, J. 2022. Conservation interventions can benefit species impacted by climate change. Biological Conservation 269: 109524

Monitoring climate change adaptation and evaluating its success

Pearce-Higgins, J., Antão, L., Bates, R., Bowgen, K., Bradshaw, C., Duffield, S., Ffoulkes, C., Franco, A., Geschke, J., Gregory, R., Harley, M., Hodgson, J., Jenkins, R., Kapos, V., Maltby, K., Watts, O., Willis, S., & Morecroft, M. 2022. A framework for climate change adaptation indicators for the natural environment. Ecological Indicators 136: 108690

The effects of climate extremes on British bird populations

Tirozzi, P., Massimino, D. & Bani, L. 2024. Avian responses to climate extremes: insights into abundance curves and species sensitivity using the UK Breeding Bird Survey. Oecologia 204: 241–255

Biodiversity responses to habitat loss and climate change

Suggitt, A. J., Wheatley, C. J., Aucott, P., Beale, C. M., Fox, R., Hill, J. K., Isaac, N. J., Martay, B., Southall, H., Thomas, C. D., Walker, K. J., & Auffret, A. G. 2023. Linking climate warming and land conversion to species’ range changes across Great Britain. Nature Communications 14(1): 1–9