Three billion birds.

On By Mike and Christy

The findings of a study published yesterday in the Journal Science demonstrate that North America has lost 30% of it’s birds population since 1970. The authors of this study suggest that this loss of almost 3 billion birds is like a canary in the coal mine and conclude their abstract with the statement “This loss of bird abundance signals an urgent need to address threats to avert future avifaunal collapse and associated loss of ecosystem integrity, function and services.”

National Geographic summarizes the Science article well touching on the reasons why bird populations are in decline and why birds matter. 

Habitat loss in the name of development another example of a fools progress.

Another strip mine, another strip mall.  The human population is striping the planet bare. Time to take action and make sure your local governmental representatives at all levels work to protect habitat, the environment and the future of every species that inhabit the planet.

64 thoughts on “Three billion birds.”

  6. Kit Dunsmore

    FYI (although you probably already know): the Three in your title is missing its “r”. (Feel free to delete this… I couldn’t find a non-public way to let you know about the typo…). Love your blog. Please keep sharing your photos and observations with us.

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      1. Sad. I am heading out in a few minutes to join the local Climate Strike march. I expect our crowd will be a good size. It will include a lot of young as well as us old hippies.

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  10. Nice photo series of our beloved avian friends. The drum I beat is use no pesticides, plant more native plants and by all means, replace at least half your lawn with native plantings. Native plants feed insects that feed birds. ‘If you build it, they will come.’ 🙂

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    1. HI Eliza, I agree with all your thoughts. We have an additional problem in the west of development. Conversion of agricultural and undeveloped land (wetlands) into subdivisions, strip mall etc and of course deforestation and mining.

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  12. I love that you’re doing something to put this crisis out there – education is key – but I have to admit to thinking we’re way past any tipping points. If humanity is screwed, along with many blameless species, I can only take comfort in the fact that there will be life on earth, and it’ll get along just fine recovering without humans.
    That said, your bird photos are lovely to see, and a reminder that those who care should keep fighting…

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    1. HI Adam, I teeter between having hope for humanity to change and thinking we have indeed gone to far. I also know that life will go on and evolve long after humans have left the picture on this planet. It is ironic to think if humanity is screwed, it has screwed itself. The disgusting part is that humanity screwed so many other species whilst going down.

      Right now the action I believe needs to occur is to make more care enough to take just a little action. Remind people of the beauty of it all and what will be lost in a world without beauty.

      Education is indeed the key and maybe someday we could discuss the over a coffee or a beer.

      Here’s to the weekend and walk in the woods or along the beach.

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    2. These are many of the locals in the photos and you can sure feels the numbers of many declining even with the scientific proof just served up. A animals who choose we sometimes make poor choices but not learning from our prior environmental mistakes is another thing altogether.

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  17. The State of Nature report has recently been published in the UK. It has similar findings. There are some positives, but there has been a decline in the diversity of species here. One of the positives is that human intervention has led to the improvement of habitats and reintroduction of species such as the red kite. This type of intervention needs to be scaled up, if we are to arrest the decline. Good blog and great photos.

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