"Europe: the first 100 million years" by Tim Flannery (Penguin)
From later chapter:
Researchers tracked 144 bird species over 30 years. They estimated 421 million fewer birds in Europe in 2009 than in 1981.
300 million breeding pairs of smaller birds disappeared between 1980 and 2010 -- a decline of 57 per cent.
Much if not all of this was due to " ... wholesale drenching of the landscape with agricultural chemicals -- fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides -- which proved fatal to many smaller beasts."
A Spanish biologist comments:
"Despite previous reforms, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) largely continues to support a resource-intensive and high-impact agricultural model which is not fit for today's societal and environmental challenges."
Such a pity we're out of the EU, isn't it, that we won't be part of their progressive environmental initiatives any more.