Black-legged kittiwakes have undergone the largest population decline of any UK breeding seabird, driven by sand eel collapse linked to climate change.
Kittiwake chicks dying of starvation in nests experience prolonged hunger before death, with parents making repeated futile foraging trips. Adult birds in poor nutritional condition are more vulnerable to disease and predation. Breeding failure across consecutive years causes population stress and demographic decline. Chicks falling from cliff ledges, a natural hazard amplified by parental absence during food-searching, experience acute traumatic injury.