Effects of climate change on wildlife

• Flowers such as snowdrops are blooming earlier in the spring and oaks are leafing earlier.
• Butterflies are appearing on the wing earlier.
• Migrating birds may have to change their migration routes or the places where they breed or spend winter.
• Wetland birds such as redshank will find their habitats threatened by climate change - saltmarshes will become inundated by the sea while moors and wet grasslands will dry up during hot summers.
• Food shortages are already causing young seabirds to starve to death resulting in dramatic population declines.
• Birds found further south in Europe such as cattle egrets and hoopoes, could colonise southern England.
• Birds may be forced to nest at different times in response to changing availability of the food they depend on to feed to their young.
• We could lose species that currently live in our most mountainous and northerly habitats. For example, the Scottish crossbill, the UK’s only endemic species of bird, faces the risk of extinction.
• Ground nesting birds will have their nests washed away by increased flooding.
• Saltwater inundation from tidal surges will damage fragile freshwater habits, killing fish and affecting the birds that depend on them.

Click on the links below to read real-life accounts from around the UK on how wildlife has already been affected by climate change.