In July 2019, Birdwatch Ireland reported that the Irish bird population was in "dramatic" decline, with 40 percent of the country's waterbirds, or half a million, lost in the prior 20 years. Loss of habitat was cited as the reason for the decline. Other reasons were climate changes, agriculture, hedge cutting, pollution, and the burning of scrub. Birdwatch Ireland called for the Citizens' Assembly to examine the biodiversity loss. One of every five Irish bird species assessed in the survey was threatened with extinction. Lapwing numbers, according to Birdwatch Ireland, were down 67% in twenty years. It also said there had been an "almost complete extermination" of farmland birds, for example the corncrake. The curlew was reported on the verge of extinction in Ireland, with only 150 pairs remaining. In the 1960s, 5,000 pairs had been reported.