Common Birds are Declining
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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
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
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