I couldn’t let the weekend pass without writing about a report published in the journal Science and highlighted by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology showing that we have lost 3 billion birds in North America, that’s one-quarter of the breeding bird population since 1970. I have followed what has been happening with the shore bird population, but the numbers were still shocking. In the story covered by NPR, the estimates of shore bird losses reach about one-third.
According to the NPR story there was hope before the study was published that the net loss of birds in North America wouldn’t be as bad as it was. Ken Rosenberg, a leading conservation scientist, thought that some rebounding populations would offset some of the losses he knew about. Researchers, such as Rosenberg, collected data from long-running surveys conducted with the help of volunteer bird spotters, such as the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the longest-running bird research project by volunteer birders.
What the counts show is that more than 90% of the loss can be attributed to just a dozen bird families, including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches, according to the NPR report.
Common birds with decreasing populations include one of my favorites, the red-winged blackbird, that my father-in-law described as proof of God’s hand on earth. Grassland birds have suffered a 53% decrease in their numbers, and more than a third of the shorebird population has been lost, according to the NPR report.
The researchers cite a variety of potential causes for these devastating losses including habitat degradation, urbanization and the use of toxic pesticides. I have given several presentations on the threats to shorebirds and noted that the biggest threat here in Florida and all along the east coast, is the loss of habitat and the predators and activity that loss brings. To see photographs of some of the shorebirds affected, visit my exhibit, Florida Feathers: Birds in Peril, in the Environmental Hall at the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.
