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What Happened to All the Birds?

Credit: The Weather Channel

Since the year 1970, three billion birds have been lost in North America.

Nearly 1 in 3 birds, or 29%, have vanished in the last 50 years. It’s quite a scary realization. Human encroachment certainly has had an impact on this number, but not to the tune of three billion. People tend to forget about the ecological impact birds have in our world. They help to pollinate plants, disperse seeds, and keep pests under control. The natural cycle shows that rare birds come and go, but the common birds are always there to pick up the pieces. But we are now starting to lose some of the common birds, too. 

The biggest loss has been with the migratory birds. Of those birds, grassland birds struggled the most. American sparrows, typically seen flying around people’s backyards, saw the largest drop of any birds. Over 750 million of these birds have disappeared.   

Researchers were able to track this data with weather radar. Radars that track the movement of clouds can also register large masses that move through the air. These typical masses include migrating birds. This data indicated a 14 percent drop from 2007 to 2017.

The study hasn’t been able to pinpoint the reason behind the massive decline in numbers, but habitat degradation and loss is a pretty good starting hypothesis. Cats contribute to the decline in birds as does the number of birds that fly into buildings. But, overall, many birds just have no place to go anymore. 

One positive piece of information that came out of the study was that populations of waterfowl, including mallard ducks and Canadian geese, have grown 56% since 1970. How is that possible? Decades of conservation efforts by hunters and money to protect these birds and their habitat has paid off.

This information proves that efforts can be made to save birds, too. As with almost everything in our environment, humans have more control over what happens than they think. Efforts need to be made before more studies like this come out.

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