Migratory birds face welfare threats across multiple countries and continents, requiring international cooperation to address effectively.
Migratory birds experience welfare threats that span continents and cannot be addressed by any single nation acting alone. During migration, birds face exhaustion from long flights, the challenge of finding sufficient food at stopover sites, and mortality from predation, weather, and human-caused hazards including power lines, windows, and illegal trapping. The Mediterranean songbird trapping crisis, which kills millions of birds annually using glue traps and mist nets, represents a concentrated welfare harm within an otherwise cosmopolitan conservation challenge. Light pollution causes disorientation and window strikes in cities worldwide. Climate-driven phenological mismatches mean migrating birds arrive at breeding grounds when their peak food resources have already passed. Addressing these welfare challenges requires coordinated international policy alongside local action.