Common Birds In Decline
Field Sparrow - 68% decline since 1967
"Audubon's unprecedented analysis of forty years of citizen-science bird population data from our own Christmas Bird Count plus the Breeding Bird Survey reveals the alarming decline of many of our most common and beloved birds."
Link: Full Article & Information at Audubon/State of the Birds
Link: Top 20 Common Bird Species in Decline
Field Sparrow image © 2007 Mike McDowell
posted by Mike McDowell @ 6:04 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Wow, you've been posting like crazy, or I just haven't been visiting as often. Anyway, great pics and stories, as usual! We're watching a baby chipping Sparrow to see if he survives. His little legs are very wobbly, and we're not sure if there's something wrong. Time will tell.
Seems like the Audubon and the USFWS are both turning a blind eye to the fact that raptors, which take all of the birds on this list, have exploded in numbers. I have seen up to 3 Cooper's Hawks hunting down cardinals and bluejays near my feeders. Isn't it time to start thinning the population of raptors, which get all of the benefits of protection for their aerial dominance, at the cost of beautiful song birds and similar prey species? The same Audubon website shows the count, according to their Christmas Bird Count project, of Cooper's Hawks increased from around 700 in 1970 to almost 8000 in 2006, over a 1000% increase!. These are only the hawks counted. I can only imagine how many are not counted. Like any conservation project, including bears, wolves, and any other type of protected animal, there comes a point when you have to question whether too much conservation is good for the overall environment. This should be a wake up call. I would love to hear a biologist talk about the role of predators with regard to these numbers. The Audubon obviously won't link the two since they have worked hard to protect hawks and falcons. They would be shooting themselves in the foot to do so. They and other groups like the USFWS get lots of money from us taxpayers to protect the birds. I'm sure they wouldn't want to lose that funding.
I hadn't thought about the raptors theory, but it does make some sense. Given the bans on certain pesticides etc. that came about in the 1970s, it makes a lot of sense that raptor populations have recovered to the extent that they'd be a factor in the songbird decline. I get predation in my backyard all the time.
I agree, though, that no organization would protect passerines at the expense of raptors.
Raptor numbers have only increased because they took such a huge hit in from the 1950s to the mid 70s. They are only now coming back strong. Any wildlife biologist worth their salt will tell you that predator control is almost never the answer. For certain localized issues (protecting an extremely endangered species over a small range) it can be useful, but never to combat range-wide population reduction. It's clear what is limiting songbirds now. Just fly over the country and see agricultural fields from fence to fence....no more fence rows for songbirds. See pastures and farms give way to subdivisions with their free-ranging cats, and sterile manicured lawns. See diverse forests clearcut and single-species tree plantations replace them. This is not hard to figure out. Look around your own county (and unless you are in the upper plains) , you'll see widespread habitat destruction. It's the HABITAT! Don't try to blame those animals that evolved to eat other animals.
BTW, don't look at shear numbers of birds from CBCs. There is a great change in effort from year to year. Look at numbers of birds per unit effort.
Thanks for your conservation efforts and great photo as well.
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