Global flyways — Migratory bird risk is a network problem, not a site problem
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
BirdLife International’s 2026 State of the World’s Birds synthesizes conservation-status data and scientific literature around migratory species and their flyways. The report emphasizes that migratory birds depend on linked breeding, non-breeding and stopover areas and face multiple threats distributed along those routes.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
For migratory wildlife, a protected site is only as useful as the network that connects it to the rest of the annual cycle. Flyway-scale assessment is a stronger decision frame than evaluating reserves or jurisdictions in isolation.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is a global NGO assessment synthesizing many underlying data sources and taxa. Threat intensity, evidence quality and conservation capacity vary substantially among flyways and species.
SOURCE
BirdLife International · State of the World’s Birds 2026
View original evidence ↗
BirdLife’s 2026 flagship assessment focuses on migratory species and the connected flyways that expose them to threats across breeding, non-breeding and stopover areas.
Read the Wild Lands assessment →