Common Birds are Declining

Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Jun 19, 2007

National Audubon keeps track of bird populations with annual surveys such as the Christmas Bird Count and the Breeding Bird Survey, in which serious birders and volunteers do careful counts of bird species. Having done it for forty years now, Audubon can make statements we can trust about the state of bird populations—and it isn’t good. Many species are in serious decline, and the twenty species in the worst circumstances have all lost more than half of their numbers in the last four decades.

National Audubon identifies loss of forests, climate change, industrial construction, intensive farming, and suburban sprawl as being significant contributing factors in the decline of North American birds. Here are the twenty surveyed species that Audubon lists as most affected:

Northern Bobwhite (a decline of 82%)

Northern Pintail

Greater Scaup

Boreal Chickadee

Eastern Meadowlark

Common Tern

Loggerhead Shrike

Field Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow (in the middle with a decline of 65%)

Snow Bunting

Black-throated Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Common Grackle

American Bittern

Rufous Hummingbird

Whip-poor-will

Horned Lark

Little Blue Heron

Ruffed Grouse (a decline of 54%)

On a happier note, it’s not yet too late for these familiar and cherished species. National Audubon has some suggestions for what we can all do to help them.

Sources:

National Audubon. Common Birds in Decline