A Deadly Contradiction: Birds of Prey & the Media

How have we got to here? A place where some areas of the general public can be so in awe and yet have a such a strong dislike of birds of prey almost at the same time. 

Buzzards have once again been in
the spotlight for all the wrong reasons

It seems hardly a day goes by without a news outlet somewhere publishing a story over hyping the often imaginary threat that birds of prey pose to us and other wildlife. The latest in this long line is Irish media coverage about the 'dangers' Buzzards pose to small dogs and sheep. And yet, almost in the same breath shows like Planet Earth 2 and Springwatch which allow us to feast our eyes on stunning footage of magnificent eagles and hawks are more popular than ever. 

Lets set the scene, we are currently living in a post-persecution age; the threat posed by persecution and killing of birds of prey has reduced massively in the past century; despite some illegal killing continuing (Hen Harriers spring to mind). My point is all birds of prey have had legal protection for some time now. This has resulted in many species increasing in number: Buzzards are the classic examples but species like Peregrines and Sparrowhawks have also recovered from historically low levels. This means things are a changing; people don't really like change, All of a sudden people are seeing more birds of prey, its not what they are used to or remember, timely capitalisation of this be the media means scaremongering is easy. 

Sparrowhawks are often wrongly
blamed for songbird declines

Secondly, and this is a little contentious. I think part of the reason for this blame culture towards birds of prey is people trying to cover up the mess we have made of the environment by passing the buck to something else. Its much easier to blame the increase in Sparrowhawks for the decline of songbirds than it is to look at the mistakes being made in land management or predation by cats and try and fix the problem, Now I'm not accusing everyone who has ever looked at a Red Kite suspiciously of thinking this, but some media outlets seem hell bent on painting birds of prey as a sort of 'ecological bad guy' when the reality is that they form part of a balanced ecosystem. 

It is also important to consider the relevance of the birds of prey being talked about or shown to the lives  those reading about them or watching them. Making a story relevant and the reader feel like they are going to be personally effected is an ancient tool the the journalists toolbox. And here, in my opinion, lies the problem. When Sir David Attenborough is doing a voice over for a section of a program on majestic eagles they are very far away often not even in the U.K. This means people feel detached towards them. They can appreciate them for what they are and what they do without and vested interest or bias. Flip the coin and you get the opposite, when Joe Bloggs reads that Buzzards in the local area might be hurting and even killing pets its a little too close to home. It could be Joe's faithful Yorkshire Terrier companion Fido next on the menu. Even if the story is complete nonsense, which is almost always the case, the gut instinct is to defend whats yours and therefore you take a negative view of birds of prey. If this gets repeated a few times all of a sudden you have a group of people who have an irrational dislike for anything with wings and talons.

So, whats the solution? How do we improve the image of birds of prey? The obvious answer is a change in the attitude of the media, but even in my over-optimistic naivety I don't think this will happen any time soon. That leaves it with us. Promote birds of prey and how amazing they are as much as you can, most people take advice and ideas they hear from their friends, family and neighbours more time and are more likely to act on it than what gets provided by the media, Lets use this to give birds of prey a helping hand.