Compared to these, wind powered generators are nothing and kill less each year than housecats.
Jeanne The Christian Science Monitor Common Bird Species in Dramatic Decline By Mark Clayton Friday 15 June 2007 A new Audubon study is one of the most comprehensive looks at bird-population trends in North America. Boston - New data show the populations of some of America's well-known birds in a tailspin, thanks to the one-two punch of habitat fragmentation and, increasingly, global warming. From the heartland's whippoorwills and meadowlarks to the Northern bobwhite and common terns of the nation's coasts, 20 common bird species tracked by the National Audubon Society have seen their numbers fall 54 percent overall since 1967, with some down about 80 percent, the group reported Thursday. Most of the trouble lies with loss of bird habitat, and has for decades, due to expanding agriculture and suburban development. The Rufous hummingbird's population has fallen 58 percent due to logging and development in its Pacific Northwest breeding range - and in its winter range in Mexico. The same thing has happened to whipporwills, whose numbers are down 57 percent due to loss of their forest habitat. At the same time, scientists say changes in migration patterns due to global warming are emerging, too. "Habitat loss is still the major concern," says Greg Butcher, Audubon's bird conservation director in an interview. "But we're also seeing increasing impact from large-scale problems like global warming." Thursday's study updates and expands earlier efforts: It adds to the annual Breeding Bird Survey, which is done by the US Geological Survey, some 40 years of data gathered by thousands of volunteers from the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count program. Together, these data make the new study one of the most comprehensive looks at bird-population trends in North America. Crows, bluebirds, mourning doves, and robins are wintering farther north and their populations are still robust, Dr. Butcher says. But other species that rely on cold climates, like the snow bunting and greater scaup, which breed in Alaskan and Canadian tundra, are showing signs of trouble. As the tundra warms, it cedes to shrubs unsuitable for the birds to breed, Butcher says. Scaup numbers are down 75 percent and bunting 64 percent, in part because these species can't go farther north to breed. Although populations in some cases dip as low as 500,000 globally, none of the "common" bird species cited is in danger of extinction, Butcher notes. But their struggle mirrors a larger global trend among endangered migratory songbirds and tropical species. At the current rate, global warming and destroyed bird habitat could lead to the significant decline or extinction of at least 400 of the world's 8,750 bird species, reported another new study, this one focused on climate-change impact. Under certain scenarios, 750 to 1,800 bird species could be imperiled by the year 2100, the study released earlier this month reported. Most of the threatened populations are in the tropics and are in danger due to slashing of their rain-forest habitat - but global warming is a clearly a looming threat, says Walter Jetz, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of California at San Diego and lead author of the study. "It's true some birds are responding already to climate change by moving farther north and leaving later in fall and coming back earlier," he says. "But there's a limit to that. At some point, there's going to be real trouble because of the impact and distortions on migration routes that have evolved over millions of years." THE NEW YORK TIMES Meadow Birds in Precipitous Decline, Audubon Says By FELICITY BARRINGER June 15, 2007 Spreading suburbs and large-scale farming are contributing to a precipitous decline in once common meadow birds like the Northern bobwhite, the Eastern meadowlark, the loggerhead shrike and the field sparrow, a report released yesterday by the Audubon Society said. Twenty common birds have lost more than half their populations in 40 years. The population of the bobwhite, a rotund robin-size bird that lives in meadows from the mid-Atlantic to the Plains, has dropped more than 80 percent, to 5.5 million from more than 31 million. The evening grosbeak, with a range from northern New England to the Pacific Northwest, has declined 78 percent, to 3.8 million from 17 million. The report covers a period when suburbs and exurbs were being carved out of Eastern and Midwestern farmlands and Southern wetlands. It also documents the loss of large numbers of Canadian and Arctic birds like the mallard-like greater scaup, the Northern pintail and the greater tern, all affected by a combination of climate change and development along lakes and rivers. While the report, published in Audubon magazine has a national focus, it also gives state-by-state snapshots of declines in birds in 48 states where enough information is available. “The song of Eastern meadowlarks used to be the soundtrack of summer,” said Scott Weidensaul, a naturalist and author born in eastern Pennsylvania who has reviewed the report. “Now it’s a rare thing. The landscape is changing. Farming is much more industrialized. Development is sprawling across these valleys.” Although the declines since 1967 are steep, the overall populations of the meadow birds still number in the millions, or in the case of the scaup 300,000, making them too robust to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The new analysis is the first of three reports. The next will look at birds that may need federal protection. The final installment will track the effects of climate change. The changing bird demographics largely parallel the changes in the North American landscape wrought by people. In the Northeast, the reversion of fields to forests has hurt some field-dwelling species, and some forest-dwelling species have been hurt by the loss of woodland shrubs overbrowsed by deer. The most common backyard birds like robins, cardinals and blue jays are thriving, though blue jay numbers have been cut somewhat by West Nile virus, said Greg Butcher, the author of the Audubon report. The birds that have done best —perhaps too well, in the case of nonmigratory Canada geese — are those most at home in the world of manicured lawns and artificial lakes. The report coincides with Congressional deliberation of measures like the farm bill, which includes some provisions to set aside agricultural land in conservation reserve programs. Those provisions are under pressure because of the demand for expanded land for corn crops to fuel the ethanol boom. The report is based on a statistical analysis of two long-range bird censuses, one by the United States Geological Survey and one by Audubon. Both surveys cover 300 species, said Mr. Butcher, the director of bird conservation at Audubon and a former director of bird population studies at the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory. About 550 are covered by one or the other. The report has not been submitted for peer review, he said, but its methodology has been vetted in a peer-review process. ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
