Long-distance migratory birds face welfare challenges throughout their journeys, including exhaustion, starvation, collisions, trapping, and habitat loss at stopover sites.
Migratory bird welfare encompasses acute suffering during journeys and chronic welfare impacts from degraded stopover habitats. Birds caught in illegal trapping operations suffer injury and death. Night migrants disoriented by urban light pollution collide with buildings, causing traumatic injuries. Climate change creates phenological mismatches where birds arrive at breeding grounds before their insect food sources peak. Protecting welfare across the migratory flyway requires international cooperation addressing habitat, hunting regulation, and light pollution.