In the past 40 years, 20 common species of birds in America have been on a decline of at least half! Some of those species had as many as a half million covering a wide range. This is some serious sad news people! 40 years ago there were twice as many birds flying around. What has our society come to…I suppose with the population explosion certain species have suffered, however, hearing news like this is always a saddening thing. Among the birds that have steadily declined are:
northern pintail, great scaup, boreal chickadee, common tern, loggerhead shrike, field sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, snow bunting, black-throated sparrow, lark sparrow, common grackle, American bittern, horned lark, little blue heron, ruffed grouse, meadowlark, hummingbird, whippoorwill, grosbeak, red wing blackbirds, northern bobwhite
Northern bobwhite were among those with the largest drop: in 1967 there were 31 million, now there’s only 5.5 million. Certain species of birds are benefiting from industrialized society due to increases in road kill. This has led to the rise in turkey vultures and crows which was an unintended benefit for the scavenger birds.
Source: Associated Press
