Migratory birds depend critically on stopover habitats for rest and refuelling during long journeys. Loss of these sites creates severe physiological stress and mass mortality events.
A migratory bird that arrives at a stopover site depleted of food after a non-stop flight over the ocean faces an acute welfare crisis. Unable to refuel adequately, it may be too weak to complete its journey, facing death from exhaustion or predation. This is not a rare event — mass mortality incidents at key stopover sites, particularly following extreme weather events that compound habitat degradation, have been documented repeatedly. The welfare suffering of exhausted migrants is real: birds in poor body condition show reduced escape responses, increased vulnerability to cold stress, and physiological organ damage from the metabolic demands of long-distance flight. Protecting and restoring stopover habitat is therefore both a conservation and a welfare imperative.