Migratory birds face cumulative welfare threats across entire flyways, and protecting welfare requires international cooperation along the full length of migration routes.
Migratory birds experience welfare harms that accumulate across their entire annual cycle. Illegal trapping during migration causes acute suffering and death for millions of individuals. Loss of stopover habitat forces birds to attempt longer flights without adequate refuelling, causing exhaustion and starvation. At breeding and wintering grounds, habitat degradation reduces food availability and increases competition. Climate-driven phenological mismatch means chicks hatch when peak prey is no longer available. Welfare interventions must therefore operate at flyway scale, addressing threats in multiple countries simultaneously through coordinated international conservation action.