Dozens of what were once numbered among the world’s most common birds have suffered disastrous slumps in numbers in the past half century, a report has concluded.

Population crashes of birds such as cuckoos and nightingales in Britain have been matched by equally sharp falls in the numbers of species well known in other parts of the world.

While in Britain and parts of Europe familiar species such as the turtle dove and corn bunting have declined dramatically, in North America the northern bobwhite has done so. In Asia the same fate has befallen the white-rumped vulture and in the Middle East the Eurasian eagle owl is also vanishing.

The findings are in a report called State of the World’s Birds, published today at a world conference in Buenos Aires held by BirdLife International, an alliance of conservation groups. “Many of these birds have been a familiar part of our everyday lives, and people who would not necessarily have noticed other environmental indicators have seen their numbers slipping away, and are wondering why,” said Dr Mike Rands, chief executive of BirdLife.

“Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life is putting on the world’s biodiversity.”

Analysis for the report showed that 56 of 124 common European birds — 45 per cent — underwent a significant decline across 20 countries over a 26-year period. In North America 20 species more than halved in number in 40 years, notably the northern bobwhite, which suffered a 82 per cent fall. Evening grosbeaks fell 78 per cent, northern pintails by 77 per cent and boreal chickadees by 73 per cent.

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