Reduction in insect numbers contributes to drop, and there are declines across more than a third of bird species surveyed

Swallows, swifts and house martins were once a common sight over UK towns and cities, dextrously catching insects on the wing. But these spring and summer visitors are becoming increasingly rare, according to the definitive survey of the country’s birds.

Populations of these insect-eating birds have dropped by 40% or more in the past decade, according to the latest Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) report.

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© Photograph: Steve Hedges wildlife photography/Alamy

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© Photograph: Steve Hedges wildlife photography/Alamy

Early springs mean food for young of arrivals from west Africa has already disappeared; this year they face the opposite problem

Migratory birds, especially those long-distance travellers that winter in sub-Saharan Africa, are struggling with the effects of climate change. Specifically, the trend towards earlier springs is causing problems, because when they arrive at their usual time – between mid-April and early May – nature’s calendar has shifted forwards and spring is almost over.

This is a particular problem for three species that travel from west Africa to breed in British oakwoods: the wood warbler, the redstart and the pied flycatcher. This trio feed their young on oak moth caterpillars, but when spring comes early these have already emerged and are beginning to pupate, so the chicks starve.

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© Photograph: Calum Dickson/Alamy

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© Photograph: Calum Dickson/Alamy

A little activity from a Common Kestrel nest near Windsbach, Germany.

A genetic analysis sheds light on when the outbreak began, how the virus spread and where it may be going.

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Nathan Heller on the secretive Order of the Third Bird: There is a long-standing, widespread belief that attention carries value. In English, attention is something that we "pay." In Spanish, it is "lent." The Swiss literary scholar Yves Citton, whose study of the digital age, "The Ecology of Attention," argues against reducing attention to economic terms, suggested to me that it was traditionally considered valuable because it was capable of bestowing value. "By paying attention to something as if it's interesting, you make it interesting. By evaluating it, you valorize it," he said. To treat it as a mere market currency, he thought, was to undersell what it could do.

H5N1, an avian flu virus, has killed tens of thousands of marine mammals, and infiltrated American livestock for the first time. Scientists are working quickly to assess how it is evolving and how much of a risk it poses to humans.

© Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters

Some poultry growers are turning to innovative tactics to protect their flocks, deploying deterrents like drones, air horns, balloons and decoy predators.

© Tim Gruber for The New York Times

Officials have shared little information, saying the outbreak was limited. But asymptomatic cows in North Carolina have changed the assessment.

© Jim Vondruska/Reuters

When traditional conservation fails, science is using “assisted evolution” to give vulnerable wildlife a chance.

A citizen-science collaboration in New York has turned up a half-dozen birds infected with the avian flu virus.

© Hannah Beier for The New York Times