A DEVASTATING report has revealed that some of Britain's best known birds are now officially endangered.

And in Yorkshire, overgrazing of farmland is a major cause.

Lapwings, skylarks and tawny owls are among the 17 species of bird now on "high alert" - meaning that the total population has dropped by over 50 per cent in the last 25 years. Most endangered is the tree sparrow - down 96 per cent.

The report, carried out for the Government by the British Ornithological Trust has also issued medium alerts for birds as common as blackbirds (down 31 per cent) and starlings (down 45 per cent).

One Yorkshire conservationist put the blame for the decline in farmland birds on overgrazing, a practice which has been encouraged by European subsidies paid per head of livestock.

Robert Masheder, of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said: "Habitats are changing as a result of moorland being replaced by acid grassland. A lot of fields are mown flat by livestock."

He also mentioned changes in farming practices such as the increased use of pesticides and intensive management of arable land as having got rid of the weeds and insects which birds like the skylark and the grey partridge feed off.

Mr Masheder said: "We'd like to see farmers being paid to manage the countryside in an environmentally friendly manner. They should be paying farmers to do it in a different way - there has to be a balance between the needs of agriculture and the needs of the landscape and conservation."

Mr Masheder said the Ministry of Agriculture did offer grants to farmers through the Countryside Stewardship scheme to help them manage their land in a more environmentally sound way, but there was little money in the scheme compared to the EU subsidies.

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