Harry Potter’s Hedwig deadly spell of danger

HARRY Potter’s Hedwig is in a growing flock of birds under threat from man’s activities, a report revealed yesterday.

It said snowy owls such as Hedwig are now classed as vulnerable owing to rapid declines in recent years.

BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds 2018 says changes to snow melt and snow cover on the tundra are affecting the prey of snowy white owls, such as lemmings.

Also at risk are turtle doves, which feature in the carol the Twelve Days Of Christmas.

Once widespread UK summer visitors from south of the Sahara, they have suffered huge declines since 1980 owing to hunting and habitat loss.

Puffins and kittiwakes have also joined the turtle dove Big decline... turtle dove on the vulnerable list due to overfishing and warmer seas forcing their favourite prey to move further north. One of the most familiar tropical birds, the grey parrot, is classed as endangered. It is a victim of its own popularity, with its decline in the wild driven by an illegal pet trade coupled with deforestation. The report, presented at a summit in Abu Dhabi yesterday, said 40 per cent of the world’s 11,000 bird species are in decline and one in eight is threatened with extinction. The biggest threat is loss of habitat from agricultural expansion and intensive farming. But another threat is the illegal killing of birds, with up to 38 million exterminated or captured every year around the Mediterranean alone.