Climate change is contributing to the decline in a several species of birds that are struggling to adapt to warmer weather. /Toby Melville/Reuters
Climate change is having a serious impact on UK wildlife as rising temperatures cause the pattern of species typically seen across the country to change.
While some species are arriving on UK shores for the first time, such as black-winged stilts and bee eaters, others are plummeting in numbers as they struggle to adapt to warmer weather and other environmental issues.
Almost half of all bird species are in decline because of a host of factors, including a loss of meadows, hedgerows and other forms of natural land caused by climate change and pesticide use.
The British Trust of Ornithology, which studies birds across the British Isles, says that the number of wild birds typically seen in the UK has fallen by 73 million since 1970.
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Birdwatchers in the UK are likely to witness greater numbers of birds such as reed warblers, which are breeding more because of the longer, warmer summer months. /Toby Melville/Reuters
Dr Dave Leech, who works for the trust, told the BBC that climate change is a growing problem for migratory birds who are having to deal with extreme weather.
He said: "Climate change is one of the biggest pressures that all species are facing, but particularly migratory species, because they have to worry about the climate conditions not only where they're breeding, but also where they're wintering and the areas that they're traveling through to get here, which can be thousands of kilometers."
Different species are adapting in different ways. Reed warblers, that typically visit the UK and breed during the summer, are taking advantage of warmer weather by breeding more young. Cetti's Warbler, which used to breed in the south, is now expanding northwards to Wales and northern England.
But warmer weather is proving less favorable for other species. The willow warbler and cuckoos are declining in numbers in the south. Scientists believe that these species are having difficulties adjusting their internal clocks to adapt to the changing seasons.
Normally cuckoos arrive in the UK in April, just in time for the summer months, and leave in late June when they head to Africa. But the birds are struggling to make it back over the Sahara to Africa as there is now less food to fuel their journey. This lack of food, which has also been attributed to climate change, is causing the cuckoo population to freefall.
Leech fears the UK landscape could change forever. "How terrible would it be if future generations never heard a cuckoo, something that was so commonplace in British wildlife before now?" he said.
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