BLACK-LEGGED kittiwakes have been added to the list of birds considered to be facing a high risk of global extinction.

The latest annual revision of birds on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 'Red List of Threatened Species' brings the total number of bird species considered to be facing the risk of extinction in the UK to nine.

Globally, the species is thought to have declined by around 40% since the 1970s, justifying its up-listing from 'least concern' to 'vulnerable'.

Climate change and fishing are pushing the kittiwake closer to extinction by affecting the availability and quality of sandeels, a crucial food source, during the breeding season. More than 70% of the British breeding kittiwake population is found in Scotland and alarming trends have been recorded in their numbers here, particularly in Orkney and Shetland, where breeding birds have declined by 87% since 2000, and on St Kilda in the Western Isles, where as much as 96% of the breeding population has been lost.

RSPB Scotland’s seabird recovery officer, Laura Bambini, said: “Some efforts are underway to protect important seabird foraging areas in international waters, but there is still much more to be done around Scotland and the rest of the UK to protect our internationally important and increasingly threatened seabird populations.”

RSPB Scotland’s head of Marine Policy, Alex Kinninmonth, added: “Frequent and widespread breeding failure is now being observed in several of Scotland’s breeding seabird species, particularly those reliant on sandeels. Kittiwakes are among the worst hit and are clearly struggling to cope with the effects of a changing food supply.

“If they are to have any hope, it’s critically important that we act on climate change, and make sure added pressure from fisheries, pollution and marine development don’t make an already bad situation far worse.”