In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would be reading an article like this and living in a world that humans are destroying with abandon. The greed has to stop. Governments must bring the proverbial hammer down on businesses that continue to pollute. Owners and corporations must step up to the plate now. If not, they, their lobbyists and product development types should be given life behind bars. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like for today’s children, let alone children’s children. Blue jays used to be a common sight in Connecticut when I was a child. I can’t imagine the future.
21
I think that Christmas bird count's that have shown an increasing population of winter fowl, such as ducks and geese have been somewhat misleading.
We need to add a count that shows what birds are around in our environments in spring and summer now.
I think if we had been doing that this new study wouldn't have been so shocking.
2
What surprises me is that no one seems to have the connection between the huge decline in the insect population and the decline in the bird population. Bird eat insects.
19
We are the only species that consciously works towards our own destruction! And we’re supposed to be the intelligent ones.
12
Could the adage, "The canary in the coal mine", be more apropos these days?
8
Quit scapegoating the cats. And the windmills. Humans are the problem.
My neighbor spends his days hunting for Earth-like exoplanets.
Here's hoping that every human being dies here on Earth, along with the billions of innocent creatures we've laid waste to - before we can find another beautiful planet to colonize, parasitize and destroy.
6
@(not that) Dolly Don't share your hope for human extinction. Recall that GOD destroyed the universe in despair over the human race. But GOD did save one righteous man -- righteous because he preserved the other species.
1
I was quite surprised to see a pair of Cardinals out in the back alley a couple of weeks ago. 2 days in a row ! The sad part is, this now seems amazing
6
What is the Dept. of Interior doing about this? They weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty & Endangered Species Act. They stopped compensatory mitigation for destruction of habitat. The head of USFWS Skipwith is a graduate of Monsanto whose pesticides are major culprits in killing bees & birds. In short, instead of conserving wildlife & habitat, they are actively destroying it. Sec. Bernhardt's ONLY GOAL is ENERGY DOMINANCE. See 436 DOCUMENTED reasons why he should be impeached at https://www.wildlifepolitics.org/blog
20
adubon mentions bird migrations that took hours to fly over. can we imagine the majesty of that sight? Will coming generations be bereft of such exquisite creatures? the shame of the failure of the migratory bird act will have on such populations is incalculable. Every Friday Bird Note from the Cornell Lab can be found on the net. Our wildness is withering. the stunning mysteries of birds will join the extinction that we experiencing on a global scale. We have so much to learn from them for our future. For this one reason I do mind my 7 decades. why would I want to be here without birdsong?
7
Now that we have lost almost three billion birds, does that mean that insect-caused diseases will increase? I include diseases borne by mosquitoes, flies, and ticks--which I believe are eaten---at least in part---by birds. Mosquitoes were responsible for almost a million deaths (according to Google) annually in recent years. All kinds of diseases are included ---e.g., malaria, zika, chikungunya, west nile virus (mosquito caused) and Lyme disease (ticks) and typhoid fever (flies)---among many other tragic diseases.
When mother nature is upset the delicate balance that helps us survive is upset . Allowing species to die out will probably have now-unseen ramifications that will trouble us later.
7
Many commenters mention over-population as a major contributor to losses in biodiversity. In fact, the US population would be stable or decreasing if not for immigration.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/
Ever-increasing population means bulldozing millions of acres of open spaces for housing. Forests and grasslands must be converted to farms to feed a growing population. Ecosystem destruction occurs, species disappear, and greenhouse gas emissions rise. We can prevent ecological catastrophe by supporting reductions in immigration levels. Sensible limits on immigration were once the mainstream environmentalist position. They should be again.
While Trump is rightfully criticized for denying climate change, progressive Democrats need to stop denying the links between environmental degradation, species losses and population growth.
20
We can finish off the rest of the birds, starting with the eagles, if we build enough windmills. And we can roast them with solar thermal power plants too, to end them faster.
Bats, which are attracted by moving blades, would be the first to go.
It's all part of the promise of the Green New Deal.
7
People are not going to stop clearing land and building structures to live in tends along the sidewalks to save birds. Only stabilization of the human population can sustain natural ecosystems. Fortunately, birth rates decline with increasing industrialization, enlightenment, and post industrial economic evolution. Unfortunately, these things don't happen fast enough.
4
Living in a migratory route of Redwing Blackbirds the flocks dominated the bird feeders for days. This past spring a sporadic number visited. The butterfly population this summer was non existent until late August with only three different species and not in multitudes with a garden planted specifically for birds and butterflies. Bumble bees, wasps and yellow jackets are scarce as well. The community consists of 40 houses, 39 use pesticides and miles of rural area surround it. This sudden drop in the populations is frightening and I fear more drastic than the statistics in the article. One comment mentioned the lack of dead insects on cars which is true even driving 500 miles, dirt and dust with an occasional spot of an insect colliding. What type of poisons are we breathing, touching, drinking and eating that can desimate the smallest and most vital creatures that live among us?
14
Interesting that cats kill 2.6 billion birds annually, almost equal to the decline in bird populations over the past 50 years.
Not mentioned is the effect of windmills on birds. Today, their impact on the overall bird population is small, but they are more likely to kill raptors and bats, some of which are already endangered. Thanks to the banning of DDT, I frequently see eagles or hawks in numerous places. Lots more windmills may take us back to before "Silent Spring."
2
There’s one easy thing homeowners can do. Every single flower, shrub, or tree we plant in our yards should be native to our locations and feed the birds either directly through berries or indirectly by hosting the insects they eat. We need to accept that our plants will be eaten and won’t look perfect. If you’re in New England see the native plants group on Facebook; you will get good, free advice on what to plant where. Other areas may have their own groups.
17
I am depressed, and do not hold much hope for my granddaughters world. Our planet is for sale to the highest bidder.
6
We are Borg.
2
We should be stewards of all the Earth, but we show as destroyers. As the animals go, so go we. Then the Earth can heal and begin again, unless, of course, nut jobs like Trump and that little nothing playboy, the current North Korean leader blow it up...
1
@Jan Warfield We are just beginning to learn -- no one understands Darwin --- yet.
1
Get rid of the windmills.
@Nickel Windmills are not causing 1 % of the damage of pesticides .
3
Clean coal is coming back.
1
Hi, I'm Peter Griffin.
There's an issue facing many Americans today that concerns a great number of us.
According to Gallup Polls one in 12 Americans is unaware that the bird is the word.
I dream of an America where everybody knows that the bird is the word.
A- bird, bird, bird Bird's the word A- well-a bird, bird, bird Well, the bird is the word My God, is it possible? Have the boys in the lab confirm this.
Sir, our math shows that the bird is equal to or greater than the word.
Check it again! - Brian? - Yeah? I don't feel so good.
Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=family-guy&episode=s07e02
1
Besides taking care of our common home by changing humans’ attitude toward Nature—from domination, to stewardship to membership—global system change or rather transformation is needed.
One of the ways to effect such transformation is to transform the unjust, unsustainable, and therefore, unstable international monetary system and use this transformation to deal with the looming climate catastrophe. The commercial, intellectual, ecological and strategic dimensions of such carbon-based international monetary system are seminally presented in Verhagen 2012"The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation" (www.timun.net). This new global governance system is based on the monetary carbon standard of a specific tonnage of CO2e per person and its associated balance of payments mechanism that accounts for both financial and climate debts and credits.
States one of the world’s best- known climate specialists about this Tierra global governance system: “The further into the global warming area we go, the more physics and politics narrows our possible paths of action. Here’s a very cogent and well-argued account of one of the remaining possibilities.” Bill McKibben, May 17, 2011
1
@Frans Verhagen Bill McKibben at Albertine
Cultural French Consulate in NY - Nov 8 .
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/festival-albertine-the-climate-moment-tickets-73006603717
And we have a "First Family" who hates animals of any kind, unless they are shooting them. There will be no help saving what is left of the Natural World coming from this "administration" or the buffoons in congress.
4
Well if Trump voters and Brexiteers are the future, maybe we are better off with a mass extinction
6
There need to be stringent human population control!!
6
Rachael Carson would be weeping if she was alive right now. Once again we are allowing ourselves to create another Silent Spring.
53
Mass disappearance 3billion birds? canary in the coal mine? Duh? Wake up right wing deniers.
3
Right wing?
More like wrong wing without a prayer.
The dire warnings will continue piling up until we are all dead. But before we are all dead we can really expect to suffer a horrible state of dying in the vein of suffering and dying like those 9/11 heroic first responders still suffering and dying on the vine. We need direct action. My humble suggestion is that every time a dire warning is published in a newspaper of record, we immediately send – email is easy and not the only way – it to the White House. That's what I'm going to do: https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/ – I KNOW THAT WILL GET ME THINKING ABOUT DOING SOMETHING ELSE. Sitting around waiting to die is not my cup of tea.
3
No insects. No birds. Waterfowl are less reliant on insects so it's no wonder.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11715197/california-monarch-butterfly-population-down-86-percent-in-one-year?fbclid=IwAR0-RSMhbM-GjzJg8NUvVgM6TV9nOV7IvjbRQl6KshpeYJeC1yus6U7F_3w
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-insect-populations-decline-scientists-are-trying-to-understand-why/
3
Well, I guess it's time for the human specie to disappear. Hopefully before the others are gone.
Putin, Trump and the rest of this world's dictators should make their move now.
1
can't resist pointing out to the city folks:
hunters...good, feral cats....bad
To quote Marvin Gay, "Oh, mercy, mercy me, oh things ain't what they used to be...what about this overcrowded land? How much more abuse can she stand?" First heard this in 1971 when his album, What's Going On?, was released and it's more true today.
5
extremely sad to read. we will meet a similar fate. frankly, the earth will be better off without us, she will regenerate. good riddance humans
3
Can American silo/echo chambers please go extinct?
Pigeons. Please? OK I went there.
Here is a New Zealand website link that USA can get some ideas from, to preserve your wildlife and birds.
Lots of Corporations in NZ also know the value of preserving the environment and creating goodwill for their businesses and also donate to Conservation campaigns.
https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/predator-free-new-zealand
2
Gotta give a shout out to the Kiwis.
Always a step ahead of this here Divided States of Aim Shoot Fire, once known as America.
2
Simple, too many people.
Bird decline since 1970: 2.9 billion
Human world population in 1970: 3,700,437,046
Human world population in 2019: 7,713,468,100
Increase: 4,013,031,054 (source: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/)
Could there possibly be a connection? Naaaaah!
9
@Stephen You are right. It cannot be pesticides .
Less people, more hamburgers for me !
beyond annoying to have a charles koch ad running on the same page as this dire warning about our dying planet.
1
The bird is the word.
The "Silent Spring"
1
We as humans are only a few clicks down the chain of life. If the birds are disappearing we are not far behind.
3
Why doesn't this article mention buildings as a source of millions of bird deaths due to collisions? From a large 2014 study, between 365 and 988 million birds die from crashing into windows in the United States each year. Buildings four to 11 stories tall account for about 56 percent of deaths in that estimate while residences that are one to three stories tall make up around 44 percent, with skyscrapers representing less than 1 percent.
This article talks about 2.9 billion birds being lost over 50 years. Again, one billion a year are lost due to flying into buildings.
5
I recommend we start with fewer cats.
3
If you want to save the birds, get rid of the cats. They are responsible for the annual demise of between 1.7 and 3.7 birds in the United States alone. Cats don't kill birds to eat them, it just their instinct to do so. What a waste.
4
@Kurt Pickard They eat them. Maybe not your house cat who generally prefers whatever you give it and doesn't bother to eat some bird it manages to nab. But feral cats are not doing it for "fun."
1
If the Earth is a garden, homo sapiens is an aggressive weed. Weeds are the ones that crowd out the vegetables and flowers. The aggressive weeds are empowered via some special advantage (such as technological capability to exploit fossil fuels) to quash all inhabitants of the garden.
I implore all readers here and elsewhere to treasure the richness of our garden when it can support not just us and our progeny, but also the multitude of species who are our harbingers.
3
Has Trump even bothered to mention this catastrophe?
NO.
Is this the guy you want to rely on saving our wildlife?
1
Every Republican member of our administration should read this and weep as I do every time new data appears as to the destruction of our natural world, our once bountiful and magnificent planet Earth.
2
To which Trump replied, "Fake news! Have you seen all the pigeons in NYC? BTW, nobody loves the birds like I do - they made some great music in the sixties! l'm doing some great things for the birds and they love me and my brain came from a bird so nobody knows more about the birds than I do. And I was not impressed with the movie BTW.
1
I saw E.O. Wilson speak at Harvard in 1999. He said we are headed towards a "biologically impoverished" world. Time flies, we have arrived.
6
Windmills, clean, renewable energy and far less pollution that kills birds, that’s the ticket!! What could go wrong??
1
Agriculture is the blame for most of the decline.
5
Some years ago, a child asked a birdwatcher friend of mine, “What if there were no more birds to watch?”
He replied, “When there are no birds to watch, there will be no humans left to watch them.”
3
When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.
“Native American saying”.
4
I had a neighbor with 4 outdoor cats. I called him Catman! Boy was I happy when he moved. I’ve read in the past how many birds cats kill.
1
Our food does NOT come from the supermarket.
2
Perhaps we can send complementary copies of "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson to all of our legislators.
1
Will the NYT require plans and actions on the climate crisis to be necessary from any candidate they endorse?
Or will they continue to endorse half measures and the status quo that will do nothing?
With the world at stake, I am not holding my breath.
Action only comes when good people hold those values as important to act upon.
“Nice guy” is one who says the right things while behaving poorly when it comes to personal actions.
Is there such a thing as a “nice newspaper”?
@Edward Brennan yes . You should read the article about the scenario of Warren winning the elections. That is the " nice newspaper " .
We have to stop beating around the bush. Too many humans on the planet altering natural environments are killing off other species and the planet as a whole.
4
Cats kill over 3 Billion birds a year world wide...
3
Who cares about Trump and Trudeau and cell phones and Netflix and Starbucks coffee and what car you're driving and what shoes you're wearing when the planet is being destroyed around us?
Who gave us humans the right to destroy our fellow creatures?
What are we willing to sacrifice in our cushy lives to right this ship?
3
Correction to my comment, I meant, of course, billions not millions.
Rachel Carson anticipated this mass avian decline in her famous 1962 book, "Silent Spring." Then, the culprit was synthetic pesticides. http://tinyurl.com/hwt6d2g
Now, "We have met the enemy and he is us." -Pogo
2
Welcome to the sixth extinction my friends.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-timeline-of-the-mass-extinction-events-on-earth.html
Unlike the other five which happened over tens of millions of years in Earth's long-time history, this sixth is probably human driven.
The previous five had no humans around.
The human consequences of the sixth will be will be pretty disruptive.
But, not pretty.
Maybe we can forestall the extinction rhythm of planet Earth. Worth a try.
But, look around you.
At anything common to your life.
The cars, roads, buildings, nations.
You think they'll be around in 10 million years?
That's an eye blink in Earth time.
This, we, are all a fluke of the universe.
And, very temporary.
Makes you want to smile at your neighbor, say hi and treat others with a bit of love.
While we're here.
2
I can tell you, In Portland, OR, the crows are doing VERY well.
They roost in the thousands in the downtown area every night.
1
People need to look at themselves and realize their values are hurting nature. The ridiculous notion that a perfect lawn must be achieved using weed killer and pesticides with devastating effects on birds and other wildlife must stop. Weeds are green too and there is no shame in a green lawn that hasn’t been poisoned with these murderous earth destroying chemicals.
People are so intent on impressing with their homes and
lawns that they don’t see the real damage they are inflicting on
the environment. What we need is a new mindset and better priorities than keeping up with the Joneses.
6
We are a dangerously murderous and rapacious species aren't we? We act as if we can rip up the web of life within which we sit with nary an impact to ourselves.
Makes one wonder what in the world Mother Nature was thinking when we were created? An experiment on whether high-intelligence is a trait suitable for species survival from an evolutionary perspective perhaps?
Well if so I think the data now coming in suggests that it is not a trait that advantages a species longer term....
So it goes.
John~
American Net'Zen
3
“More People, Fewer Birds”
The solution is so frighteningly obvious: Fewer People. Yet the authors won’t touch this issue.
3
I've been thinking a lot about Easter island lately. The indigenous people carved those amazing enormous heads, moving them with logs as rollers to the desired location. The theory is that they decimated the natural forests in this effort, ending with no trees to make fishing boats and shelters. The people ended living in caves. I keep thinking: did they not see this coming? Did no one sound the alarm? I think some did, or tried to. But the chiefs/shamans/priests overruled the evidence, likely in favour of keeping their power.
History repeats itself. We have the scientists warning us, but leaders are more worried about staying in power. I don't want to end up living in a cave.
3
I don't believe a word of this article. First it was the bees, now it's the birds. How long before it's all of North American humanity? This hysterical catastrophizing turns off moderate voters like me and drives us to Trump where we can have our cars and tax cuts.
1
Eat organic to save the birds!
The day the music died.
1
You wanna help birds?
Eliminate tree rats (squirrels). They eats birds eggs.
Well, here goes again. My latest and undoubtedly futile attempt to point out to New York Times readers - humane and liberal readers- that this tragedy is caused by too many people and development. And the reason for this -since the 1970’s when the native population in the United States had achieved a zero population growth rate- has been immigration. Almost no one will speak of this- certainly not the New York Times whose obsession with opposing any restrictions on immigration are obvious to any reader- or any of the Democratic candidates, who might actually lose the general election because of this one issue, and this is because opposition to immigration is viewed by many liberals as being racist (and it certainly can be). But all of the wonderful suggestions made by many thoughtful readers will not solve the problem which we have of too many people. Our population has more than doubled since the 1950’s, because of immigration. That is the cause of the tragedy described by this article.
2
The problem is there are too many people.
4
This is an important and under-covered topic. Thank you for highlighting it.
1
Don't forget that West Nile Virus attacks, sickens and kills birds and has been prevalent for almost 20 years now. Birds are the primary host species...
1
As an avid birder, I can see the drop in bird populations in my own community. This article is timely, and the loss of so many birds is definitely indicative of the planet's health. Habitat loss is the main reason, but house cats also contribute significantly to the loss of bird populations.
1
There is a scientific debate in France about the authorization since 20 years of SDHI pesticides meant to block the cellular oxygenation of fungus but whose effects go far beyond and target all stages and elements of wild life and even humans , causing grave damages .
Those SDHI pesticides were tested by the French agency responsible for accreditation but a group of academic researchers concerted at that time claim they were silenced and that the conclusion of the tests were tricked .
American pesticides . How or why did the state scientists decide to authorize these pesticides against the advice of academic researchers ?
Of course here in the article about the disparition of birds , no hypothesis for the cause .
Birds have disappeared, they are disappearing and will continue to disappear . It is a fact . Let's not argue beyond our field about the reasons or the causality in question.
It is multiple factors anyway...
3
I see developer's "for sale" signs going up around the county I live in, one which not many years ago was largely open pasture for herds of dairy cattle. But no longer - the demise of small farms has led to factory farming operations further north, where populations are not lief to fighting against the concentrations of manure that foul the water. That, and grain-feeding the girls means far less open pasture, far less habitat for the winged ones.
Habitat destruction is the great sadness of our time...and I am dismayed to see far fewer comments associated with this piece than with other articles - Reader Comments being the indicator species that they are of human interest in Times articles.
4
you're preaching to the choir. go convince republicans that any life outside of a 10,000 square foot mansion is worth saving.
2
In my 1982/1983 college classes, professors said earth would not support human life by 2060-2080. I did not have children. No regrets. Here we are (2019) now only 41 years from 2060 and habitat for all living beings is collapsing planet wide. There is no reason to bring another human onto the planet. The tipping points for the 6th Mass Extinction + catastrophic climate change are right here, right now. If we get to 3C-4C, which is predicted to happen around 2080, maybe sooner, it gets so hot, plants can't grow. No plants, no animals (humans are animals). Live in your happy bubble all you want. Pretend that your children and your grandchildren will make a difference and save what remains for an eco-green future. Not gonna happen. Far too late. Better to just tell your kids and grandkids not to have kids. And if you haven't had your own kids yet, don't bother. Adopt kids who are already here. The planetary violence to come will be unfathomable. The living will envy the dead.
7
I am ashamed of myself for not doing more to help my home planet. I can't even keep my attention on the problem.
2
Who ever said we were more important than all other living things was wrapped around the branch of an apple tree waiting for a naive human being to come along...
6
In the 1960s, dire predictions on the fate of humanity were all the rage in academic circles. The pundits pontificated that the world would end because of overconsumption of resources by humans resulting in famines and many other catastrophes. None of this happened because of the revolution in agriculture, as well as uncountable scientific progress developments that have made life today far better than 50 years ago. However the doomsayers were right in their message, except that they chose the wrong species. Human progress has been devastating to all non-human species bar none. We know the utter devastation of animal life on land and in the sea. This article confirms that our avian brethren have not been spared either. This is a crisis, and we have to respond with urgency.
4
Kill insects and you starve birds. Remove food for insects and you also remove food for birds. No mystery is there. Many people don't like genetically modified grain, perhaps the birds don't either. I used to hear birds every morning when I woke up when the valley was still wild. Now I only hear scores of dogs barking all over the valley on the plush, chemical-green, manicured, pesticide lawns and concrete driveways. Perhaps the birds left the valley for the same reason I did; sanity.
7
Anyone who has bothered to listen to morning song and to view the birds in their yards will validate this unnerving happening.
Having watched with abject horror the decline of birds in my surroundings I fear for a future for my grandchildren that a world without birds and nature is no world at all.
Their collapse portends a dying planet and us along with it.
69
@BMAR
Check out the Audubon Society.
1
Here we have a very important problem presented by serious scientists and you have readers of the NYT commenting about their cats ...
Or saying that we should render mall parking lots back to wild nature .
In the meantime they eat in plastic, drive their car alone, turn their AC down to 66 degrees , leave open the doors of air conditioned shops to 90 degrees ambiant streets, use tons of pesticides and fertilizers, eat fast food, don't recycle, vote for Trump, etc... the American culture.
2
When my dog returned to our grassy Jersey City yard a few days ago from a two month absence, we were stunned to find she quickly became infested with many seed ticks that feasted on her blood then dropped off. We found them on our floor, bloodied as we stepped on them. Why? This had never happened before. Upon inspection of the neighborhood...it was clear several neighbors had removed their trees and shrubs over the summer. All the birds had left the area because there were no nesting or safe resting spots. Birds eat insects--including ticks. Now we are forced to deal with this infestation as best we can. But I miss the birds that used to peck at whatever they were finding in the yard.
6
One thing that will make an immediate difference: Keep your cats inside.
6
Equally so, the drastic decline in insects.
2
@David B. Benson
Agreed. A drive through NJ or PA would typically bring me a windshield full of smashed bugs in the recent past.
Not any more.
If you think of all the vehicles driving along all the roads in this country, tally up all the bug windshield fatalities through the years. Must be astonishing--and not a factor the populations can easily bounce back from. And that is just ONE death trap for them, among many.
An hour and half drive puts me at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Almost 9 square miles belongs to the people. What should be wetlands jewel and shrine to what our country was, is mostly managed for agriculture. Levees and dikes diverting most water away from the area.
With the water, goes the prothonotary warblers, egrets, and herons. We created this crisis and continue to manage it for business needs rather than what nature needs.
Our president....we know better than to turn there for help
3
So incredibly sad. Did this article mention that wind turbines also kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year (per Audubon)? Go Solar!
2
To brings birds back, it is necessary for home owners to prepare an environment that is comfortable for them. My home is surrounded by large evergreen bushes that make good places to nest for many varieties. I have no shortage of birds. I have a lot of every variety of bird that have been common to this area for eons. I am inundated by all varieties of finches, blue birds, cardinals, towhees, wrens, sparrows, chickadees, several varieties of nut hatches, humming birds and, on a seasonal basis I have a lot of birds that fly through here on the way to their winter grounds.
I have three feeders. One is for humming birds, and two for the others. I use the best of bird feed and do not bother myself by buying the less expensive things you find in a lot of stores, much of which is just kicked out of the feeders onto the ground. The bird feed that I use is soaked in the juiced of hot peppers which does not bother the birds, but it keeps squirrels and chipmunks for eating it.
It takes little enticement to get them into my yard and watching them is an extreme pleasure.
I often just sit on my patio and watch them. I have no shortage of birds. I am not a bird watcher per se. I have more birds landing in my yard than there are planes that land at the Atlanta airport.
3
"Feral and pet cats roaming outdoors cause huge bird mortality every year, as do collisions with buildings, communications towers and power lines. "
Gee, you didn't mention wind turbines. Why is that?
Americans in general are completely ignorant in ecology.
It is a long time that the destruction of biological diversity and birds, bees, and other pollinizers is widely documented in Europe, not like here in a corner .
A German study published in the European press today shows the high toxicity of plastics . Where and when is it going to be published in the US press ?
It is almost like if American journalists don't read the European press.
Americans are using an astronomical amount of plastic . The difference with Europe is astonishing. Americans eat in plastic everyday, drink in non washable cups that they throw away, everything you buy in the USA is wrapped in plastic, even each fruit and vegetable .
They also recycle much less than in Europe.
In Germany 40 % of plastics, paper, cardboard, etc...is recycled.
In the USA only 7 % .
There is absolutely no conscience about the ecology in the USA .
There must be no education about it in the US public education .
4
The canary in the coal mine has died. Let's ignore it and mine some more coal. What could possibly go wrong?
2
I’m a gardener for 50 years. I don’t use pesticides or soil nutrients because they wash down and pollute our streams
and ground water and wells. This year is “marked” by a very noticeable reduction in the bee population, preying mantis
ladybird, aphids, wasps, skimmers, moths and butterflies, even mosquitos, although we do have or had, not too sure,
a bat population. The noticeable reduction in cardinals, robins and sparrows, humming birds and some blue jays, grackles and even starlings in my backyard. I live in a North East deciduous forest. I’m waiting to see what birds come to the bird table this winter!
1
Of the wild creatures that share the planet with us, are not the birds less harmful to us than most ? They fly upwards when we wish to use the land beneath and let us be. These descendants of dinosaurs belie their antecedents by their lack of ferocity. Only beauty and song . (Ah, the pigeons in the park---there, one most be cautious when walking beneath --perhaps, other birds too; so perfection is lacking, as we ourselves are far from perfect.) A pity that those we give power to have so little concern for the variety of beauty , color, chirping song, and sounds of life our planet was blessed with --- that is now disappearing.
2
The article might have included reference to research done by The Audubon Society and others on depredation of the bird population by cats. If the choice between birds and cats were put to cat owners, the result would be what we have now.
4
We are witnesses to the carnage resulting from a species gone rogue, our species. Take a species with the highest intelligence, the greatest greed, with unlimited appetite and zero population limits, natural or self imposed, and sit back and watch the inevitable natural catastrophe. Kudos to the few who try to stem the overwhelming tide of human indifference.
6
Another fallout from climate change and the fact that unregulated, we won’t listen. It’s so important now for us to make changes to protect ourselves and our environment and ecosystems. We shouldn’t wait for regulation and laws but as this story shows, it’s the only way we’ve succeeded. Until we’re ready to take action as individuals, deregulation out of spite will continue to chip away at our existence.
3
@SF Reader Documented harm to birds appears to be arising from pesticides, changes in land use, cats, and windmills (conveniently omitted from the article). Absolutely no harm to birds appears to be arising from "climate change." Moreover, it is hard to understand how an average change in temperature of a couple of tenths of a degree would have any impact on bird species whatsoever. The temperature where I live will fluctuate by 30 fahrenheit degrees today within a 12 hour period, yet the birds will somehow avoid dropping dead from the sky and carry on as usual.
Ignoring specific and controllable reasons for bird population decline in favor of waving your hands vaguely at invisible goblins does no good to anyone or anything, other than to provide comforting mental fodder for ideologues.
2
It's time to dust off old copies of "Silent Spring" which was so prophetic. Pesticides not only kill the insects the birds feed on but also kill the birds that ingest those poisons.
Take a link out of a Nature Chain breaks the whole system.
7
When living in Wisconsin some years back, I took a day trip to the Horicon marsh during the migration of the Canada geese. I was stunned to watch thousands of geese around me. I particularly remember the liftoff of one bird from sitting in the marsh to soaring 20 feet over me with just three beats of its wings.
Changes for wildlife need not be huge. We changed from ubiquitous lead shot in shotgun shells to steel shot after realizing the birds were getting lead poisoning from eating what did not kill them directly.
The biggest irrigated crop in the US as estimated in 2015 is turf grass surrounding our homes comprising nearly the size of the state of Texas at 63,000 square miles.
We can do better both for the birds and for our own futures.
6
I wish that companies who spray pesticides would be banned from doing business. I live in a suburb where every day I see pest control companies spraying for insects. This really has to stop. It is a big reason for what is going on. Kill the insects and you stop feeding the birds. People must be educated to understand this. These companies are only a part of the problem as it goes right up the stream to huge companies that pollute the air and water all over the world. We are in big trouble on this earth, I only hope we can at least try to reverse the damage already done, but hope is dwindling.
6
From the article, it doesn’t sound as though any species is particularly threatened. Unless we have people that need the birds the way the hunters needed the ducks, I doubt we’ll do much until a species is actually threatened. With there still being billions of birds, I’m not sure the article has justified action.
For many years, I have walked my neighborhoods and observed my own lawn--I live in a middle sized city. 30 years ago, my small yard rippled with honey bees on the clover and other small flowering plants there--we mow, but do not use pesticides or " weed killers," because those plants are early pollen sources in the spring here. Owls and bats flourished in our area, and are very rare now. Now, it is relatively rare for me to see bees as I walk, and this spring I thought my yard seemed different again, and I realized that there was not a single dandelion in my yard, and that I rarely saw one on my walks. And this article confirms my feeling that I have been seeing fewer birds in general. I hope that this research finds welcoming minds--as one person pointed out in these comments, re-wilding urban areas can help, but it needs widespread adoption. My yard is not a perfect expanse of grass, but it always seemed just as lovely to me.
3
I live 25 miles from Boston. I noticed dead bugs, sometimes large ones, dead on sidewalks, on walks with my dog years ago and brought it up to anyone who would listen. Many bees just seemed to die in place . Enormous beetles dead on the ground. This summer I never saw a bee in my garden until mid July and then not very robust. And in late August spraying for EEE virus commenced. There went most of what was left. This seems a situation that has been untenable for years. We need to address pesticides and we need to address human overpopulation. We can’t feed ourselves by killing everything else and it’s been quite obvious that is what we have been doing for a long time.
5
@Jeffrey Churchill
There are multiple videos on youtube demomstrating piles of dead bees around cell towers.
I just returned from 5 weeks in a southern coastal community. One of the many things I noticed walking through the tightly packed neighborhoods was that the common method of lawn care required pesticides and monoculture. I saw few insects and few birds. The overwhelming smell, as I ran the morning streets, was laundry detergent, fabric softener, and lawn care chemicals. We did visit a local botanical garden and saw the biggest bumble bees I've ever seen. They were awesome!
It is sad to live in these times; to watch so much of the planet dying. It is spiritually and psychological painful. I'm sure there is a name for it, for this environmental malaise. We need to speak more openly about it with each other.
6
I know. It’s a sense of ineffable sadness and a sense something is profoundly wrong. You never think you will mourn the death of a bug, but you do. And you mourn the loss of the other critters that feed off them, like frogs and birds.
1
This is heart breaking. I am one of those over 50 and I HAVE noticed the lack of birds and insects. While I think the overwhelming reason is loss of habitat and pesticides, I would like to address trees. I have lived in Florida for 10 years now, I'm originally from N.Y., I have so many tree people coming to my door asking to cut my trees here in Florida. Wildlife love to make their homes in old trees! But they will try to convince you that your trees are going to fall on you or your house. They are constantly asking to cut them and some people give in. I hear chain saws ALL the time. They need to find other work.
2
Amazingly, people deny what they view through their own eyes. Trump has convinced them to "believe what I say, not what you see." I just moved from a home I had lived in for 35 years. I recall sitting in my yard with my children as they grew helping them to identify the different types of birds, dozens of them, that landed in the yard and the woods behind. The number steadily dwindled, to the point where the dozens became few. How can Americans not see what is happening before their very eyes? How does that vision not translate into action at the polls? I will never understand American voters?
4
I'll just say it. The GOP has become the party that wants to remove every single environmental protection (as well as every single worker safety protection). They need to be voted OUT, every single one of them, until they change profoundly on that point.
And then we need to hold every single elected rep's hand to the FIRE to ensure the strongest possible environmental protections. Outlaw neonicotinoid pesticides, strengthen the EPA, real & strong protections for endangered species again, restore Bear's Ears, & get the Green New Deal going now.
3
The most important statistic in this essay: the human population of the US and Canada increased by 61% during the study period.
It is the infestation of humans that is poisoning the biosphere.
5
The birds and insects ( and other fauna) are our collective canary in the coal mine. We lose them. We lose us. I remember childhood mornings deafened by the loud dawn chorus. I remember evenings when we had to stop to wipe off the windshield, it was so splattered with bugs.
No more.
We live on the edge of an organic farm now, yet in the evening, there are rarely bats. There are fewer fireflies. The peepers are less raucous ( population down) and certainly there are fewer bees. A layman, I know the numbers are down, I have been watching it myself for the past ten years.
Thank you for this disturbing report.
How I wish the policy makers would take heed!
Culture change is hard, but if our children and grandchildren are to live on a habitable planet, the time is now. or perhaps thirty years ago.
5
Bird populations are imploding, but that’s not surprising when you look at the drop in the populations of species generally. Their habitat is being destroyed.
And so is ours. Simple math tells us the end is nigh. Will the human population begin its own inevitable implosion in 2100, 2050, 2030, 2020?
7
Lawns are basically deserts for wildlife. Replace 90% of your lawn with wildflowers. This gives forage for birds and bees. Put up bird boxes for nesting. Feed the birds. Keep your cat in!!! I did this and my yard is loaded with wildlife - many varieties of birds and wild bees, chipmunks, rabbits, turkeys. I also leave a window slightly open in my garage and birds nest in there too.
Another way to help the planet - choose not to have children (unless you simply must). We need to change culturally and make it a badge of honor for women to forego having children in order to make human population sustainable. Talk about this with everyone you know. Politicians know this and they're afraid to talk about it for fear of the backlash from the public. It's not about forcing women to not have children but instead giving them encouragement and support to make a decision mindfully. The simple truth is we have overpopulated the Earth and our number are only going up. Think what mass hunger across the planet will look like. It has already begun.
14
I have been saying this, it seems like forever, but it is only very recently that I have heard the voices of other enlightened folks expressing the same, it has been somewhat discouraging to observe the utter ignorance of the majority of people with regard to this massive threat to us and the other species with whom we share the planet.
People seem to think they will be able to extricate humanity from this disaster in the making through technology, whilst ignoring the fact that it is technology which got us to this point in the first place.
There are too many humans by several millions, end of story.
4
We've all noticed it, the alarming absence of insects and the declining numbers of birds. So many things to blame -- development, sprawl, windmills, tall glass buildings, incessant lighting, pollution and agricultural and urban pesticides, not to mention the mass insect carnage from suburban lawn mowers in pursuit of golf club lawns.
What to do, other than sound these horrifying alarms, and help with an attitudinal change.
Nothing is truer than the unfortunate choice of original spokesperson for climate change, Al Gore, who turned off so many and made the issue a 'liberal' one. I believe most people if presented the facts in a nonpolitical nonpartisan nonpreaching way would respond as best they can to this dire challenge. And I'll go one further: if it were a republican who did so, who took the risks and led the charge, dropped the politics and spoke as a leader, the game would change, people would better see this crisis as a unifier and not a divider, good citizens would understand the challenge and roll up their sleeves and pitch in. Would recognize the culprits, understand potential solutions. People by their nature willingly respond to good causes and even more to national emergencies, and if saving the birds and ourselves and life as we know it isn't one, then nothing is.
3
@Ken The truth is that republicans will indeed eventually start claiming the mantle of climate change action—but as a means of violently restricting immigration, subjugating minorities, justifying wars over resources, and deregulating more industries. Their vision is a nation modeled on a country club, and you know it.
3
Your response is proving my point.
@Ken With respect, your point does not reflect the nature of American politics past or present.
There is a need for "green" to be comprehensive.
- Wind turbines kill the large birds that ride the winds (not so green!)
- Grass mowing to allow nesting needs education (Meadowlarks)
- Thickets need protection as a category of land preservation (nesting)
- Insect sprays need to be regulated
- Cat people need to BELL YOUR CAT if you must let it out
- No cars on beaches
- Roof gardens on malls
- Fruiting trees in corporate landscaping
- on and on
7
The altered ecosystems by humans are a much larger tragedy than Climate Change. Of course a severe Climate Change will mess end many of these ecosystem anyway. But if we control Climate Change without addressing habitat loss, we will have little else to protect other than coastal cities.
Our passions can be a bit misguided.
10
For the sake of the planet, therefore all of us, we must start questioning the wisdom of perpetual growth.
We must be planet Earth's guardians not it's destroyers and the mindless obsession with growth at any cost belies our claim to be intelligent life.
7
How many birds do we really need anyway? The amount we have right now seems fine.
But seriously, every decline in one species causes an increase in others. Nature is a dynamic equilibrium that is constantly changing. It's hard to say that Equilibrium A is superior to Equilibrium B.
I am not surprised that the number of birds is declining. Road trips through the western United States when I was a child in the sixties and seventies resulted in bug smeared windshields that had to be laboriously cleaned off with multiple windshield cleanings at every gas stop. Recent road trips resulted in no similar insect carnage. With no insects, there is no food for birds. We need to rethink insecticides and invest in organic farming techniques.
25
The extinction of the dodo was the kickoff down this road.
Now there is climate change, bird change and bug change to ignore or deny.
I would add frogs and toads are MIA as well around the garden.
8
Cats rule! Cats have servants - dogs have masters. Cats rule and have done so since the year dot. No one has worked out the mysteries of the Egyptian Sphinx yet. Still waiting...
1
@CK Toxoplasmosis at work...
Prove me wrong, but it seems we are in the middle of an ecosystem collapse that is NOT likely to be reversed any time soon, and which may be headed towards a "tipping point" - a point which, once reached, inevitably leads to a dramatic shift in the equilibrium settings of the system. Imagine a crowd of people slowly pushing a large rock up a hill which they don't know the height of. They imagine they can push the rock forever, but sooner or later the top of the hill will be reached and no matter WHAT they do, they will not be able to stop the boulder from rolling (or falling) down the other side of the hill until it hits the valley below. The next 50 to 100 years will be Chinese-curse-style "Interesting". We may well see within our lifetimes, changes in the earth's increasingly delicate natural systems which we will scarcely be able to believe are actually happening.
8
Purely anecdotal observation, but I bicycle about 5,000 miles each year, and in the last five years I’ve seen increasingly more dead songbirds on the road. These days there’s at least one dead songbird on nearly every ride.
The first time I saw a dead robin on the side of the it was shocking. Five years on and the dead warbler I rode past this morning was just saddening.
We are hurtling ever faster towards the end of this epoch in earth’s journey through space. Enjoy the ride.
12
The species that migrate to South and Central America, including Meadowlarks, Orioles and Bobolinks, are being killed by the farmers there, intentionally and accidentally, through heavy use of pesticides and poison baits. This has been documented by ornithologists. The insect population crash has also been documented, scientifically, by studies in England and Central America. In Central America, a concomitant reduction in insect feeding birds and other animals was also documented.
13
To - the authors of this Opinion Report - thank you.
We have learnt about dinosaurs going extinct, millions of years ago, resulting from an asteroid hitting planet earth. Birds, being the very descendants of dinosaurs, are now facing a challenge during our lifetime.
Birds of different species are part of our eco and nature system. Their biggest challenge for survival is us, the human beings. We see deforestation in various locations. We forget that the forests are home for the birds. The growing climate change, are impacting the livelihood of the bird population as well. Individual homeowners, housing communities and other commercial complexes can contribute, by resorting to natural or herbal pesticides, not harmful to plants, birds and pets.
Birds are a pleasant sight. They make your day. Just to watch them in your back yard, each day as they visit the bird feeder or their swimming pool (the water fountain) is a form of therapy for us all.
We all have a responsibility to save and protect the birds. They very much deserve our love, support and understanding.
5
People up 50%. Birds down 30%.
But that's ok. Just switch to a Tesla, eat less meat. Give up plastic straws. Or whatever the latest phony environmental greenwashing fad is.
There is a simple fact: there are too many people. The human project is too big. There are too many people. And we can't even talk about it.
17
@r a - I recommend Soylent Green as the answer. Charleston Henson knows what's in Soylent Green.
1
Human population up, wildlife down. I hear the sentiment everywhere I travel of how a particular place used to be so open and beautiful before it was 'developed'. Rarely have I heard someone say that were happy with this outcome. We cannot have our proverbial cake and eat it too! Humans are the problem and rampant population growth must be part of any real conversation about sustainability and conservation.
21
Now the New York Times could do us all a great service by continuing this story, doing a series (daily or weekly) following individual bird species, from the beloved cardinal to the obscure red knot (kudos for your previous coverage of the dilemma of this bird). Please don't wait for the next research report to drop. Do another story tomorrow. And tomorrow. Keep this in the public consciousness -- the crisis for birds is a crisis for all of us.
30
"What we need most is a societal shift in the values we place on living side-by-side with healthy and functioning natural systems. Natural habitat must not be viewed as an expendable luxury but as a crucial system that fosters human health and supports all life on the planet."
Not much to add. We must do better.
18
Excellent article that serves as a wake-up call for recommitting ourselves to the prophetic and transformative work of Rachel Carson to address our contemporary human-caused and preventable environmental degradation. Preserving and expanding forests, grasslands, and wetlands, promoting sustainable farming using new technologies (no more Monsanto and their GMO-glysophate poisons), will reap benefits for humans, birds and other wildlife and help in our efforts to address climate change.
One issue of concern not addressed are the possible effects of the massive increase in wireless communications--cell phone towers are seemingly everywhere, and with the advent of 5G--for which there have been no safety studies on health effects (as per a recent Senate hearing in which big tech executives were questioned)--I worry about detrimental effects on wildlife (and humans). I'm not making a claim, but raising the question.
We love our birds and have noticed a drop in species visiting our feeders--now mainly mourning doves and house sparrows when just a few years back we had a much wider variety. We must act now.
9
Saw a beautiful butterfly today. One. Took my breath away literally. As a longtime birdwatcher can verify the diminished sightings. Thank you for this story. A history lesson that will never make it to the history books right now but the scientific community will prevail in the long run. Galileo , Da Vinci , Copernicus...
6
And what has transpired since the 70's to largely facilitate this decline? Habitat destruction sure, climate change, absolutely. But my bet is that most of it is as a direct result to the ubiquitous of pesticides and herbicides used everywhere. Roundup in the fields and the suburban areas have decimated the insect population ( which was reported earlier this year). One would seem to follow the other. If the decline in insects, and birds, one can expect that larger species will decline also. Amphibians already under attack from the chytrid fungus, should be added to this our Anthropocene. What it means is a much quieter, duller world, and we are to blame.
18
A year or two ago, I heard an interview (probably on NPR) with an insect expert. He pointed out that in the 50s, when we drove long distances, our windshields would be absolutely covered with dead bugs. It took a while to squeegie them off when we stopped for gas. Remember that? It got me thinking. Yeah! That doesn't happen anymore. It isn't that bugs learned to avoid our windshields. There aren't that many anymore. Talk about indicator species! And then there's this: I moved to the high mountain town of Prescott 18 years ago. A friend who once housesat for me told me, "I love sleeping in your house. You fall asleep to the crickets and wake up to the birds." Sadly, even here in the forest that is no longer true.
16
I'm sorry, but I don't see a strong or convincing argument here about why this matters much. Sure, it'd be great if all individuals of all species survived. But humans want/need certain things. Merely calling birds an "indicator species" doesn't say how their loss leads to quantitative problems with ecosystems or our future.
I like birds, a lot. But it's important to be a devil's advocate.
1
Well consider that there is profound loss in a number of varied species including bats, coral reefs, bees, frogs, fish, etc. This bird loss is yet another sign of want may turn out to be large scale extinction
18
@I like birds, but
You could say, comparatively speaking, that the decline of insects from the overuse of pesticides is more concerning. It is implicated here in the bird die-off, and and with amphibians. The underlying issue is that the wild ecosystems and the human systems are connected. If the wild areas are so damaged by human activities that they can't function anymore, then the human race is at risk as well. It is a web of life and when it is healthy is supports clean air and water, natural recovery from diseases, the pollination of food crops.
6
This study confirms my recent observations, and fears. I used to sit on my porch and listen to “our whippoorwill”. No more. Used to feed the orioles in the spring. No more. Used to see red-winged blackbirds lining fences on country roads. No more. Heavy sigh. I will continue to let the blackberry bushes and thistle take over my backyard- and so no to Tru Green every time they call or stop by.
13
The goal of most municipalities is to “grow” and “develop.” That means cutting down and paving over millions of acres everywhere, every year. That way, the municipalities get more tax money to spend on “economic development.” Ad Infinitum, or till we expire with the rest of the world. Whichever comes first.
11
This summer I noticed that there were not as many moths around. I sit outside in the evening to read using a lamp and hardly any moths. And just a few lightening bugs, too. Lots of mosquitos. Weird.
9
This report on the decline of birds is hitting me in a profound way. I have been a bird lover and watcher all my life.
I live in a fairly rural area, and I have noticed that the birds and bird calls were fewer, but never really put it together until this horrid news. I have indeed seen a noticeable silencing of birds, animals or rustling in the woods during my walks over the last decade, and in addition to birds, I have seen fewer and fewer dragonflies, butterflies, fireflies, and wildflowers, especially in the last two years.
l have to wonder if the apparent acceleration of loss recently is directly linked to Trump's loosening of environmental regulations and the planet being even hotter than was predicted. I suspect it has indeed been a deadly accelerant.
7
We humans are killing the planet and despite the need for Paris and other climate accords, no government is going to meet the crisis of our dying earth in a timely manner. Another solution may be possible. The late Doug Tompkins and his wife Kris, who made fortunes in the fashion companies Patagonia, Esprit, and North Face, created a foundation that purchased and donated one million acres of land to Chile for national parklands, which included difficult negotiations and arrangements with the locals who had been working on that land. Others with such means (you tech guys know who you are) can help save the world by forcing us to leave parts of it alone.
15
We also have two bird baths that we refresh every day, even in the winter when we have to dump them at night to avoid freezing. They stay very busy year-round as the birds come to bathe and drink. We feel that this is more important that feeding them.
7
This is just heartbreaking to read this. On the other hand our efforts continue with some success: A few years back we uncovered our chimney and this year we had another brood of Chimney Swifts. It is such a thrill to watch them in the evenings, swooping around like the Blue Angels.
We had two houses full of Nuthatches and of course the Bluebird houses were fully occupies and the Mockingbirds nested in the shrubs again. The "Mockingbird Wars" in the yard are epic as they vie for territory.
Meanwhile, over at the yacht club on the big lake I finally persuaded the powers-that-be to stop having a service come in to spray for mosquitos that result from lazy people allowing water to accumulate in their boats. I'm retired so I drained a lot of boats in the spring, but then I slacked up as the Martins returned to build their nests under the docks. They did a fantastic job of keep the place mosquito-free and no insecticide was fogged, killing everything. So we had a great brood of little Martins and now they've flown away.
So I feel good about what we've managed to do to at least help out a bit.
I will say that the one thing that I dearly miss is the sounds of the Whippoorwills at night. I read somewhere that the invasive Coyotes ate them up.
13
Here in northeast Florida, I have been wondering where all the mockingbirds have gone; quail disappeared a decade ago. Great Blue Heron and egrets have slim pickings in the poisoned drainage ponds and ditches. Developers rule this state. There is absolutely no thought given to "smart growth". Thousands of acres of natural habitat are destined to be covered by urban and suburban sprawl. Here in the suburbs, homeowners don't give a single thought to the environment, but are happy to have their commercial "lawn care" trucks out monthly, spraying their killer mix of nitrogen, herbicide and pesticide, wiping out mosquitos and pollinators and polluting the ground water so that their lawn will look lush and green. What is it going to take for general folk to practice responsiblity for the environment?
17
I agree with other posters that environmental news now needs to be front and centre, all the time. This is what The Guardian is doing in the UK, and it really matters. It's revealing what's going on around the world: devastating forest fires in the Amazon, the US, Canada, Siberia and Europe; such severe drought in parts of Australia that cattle are collapsing and kangaroos are dying; intensifying hurricanes; the swift loss of ice at the poles; the severe loss of biodiversity (60% of species lost since 1970, I believe). This is catastrophic--far worse than the narcissistic nonsense of our various leaders. The earth's creatures are dying all around us--and we are already joining them (consider the hurricane victims and the heatwave victims). We must at least *try* to change course.
I was fortunate to grow up 50 years ago in a semirural area, on an acre of land filled with fruit trees, raspberry patches, a large vegetable garden and, at the back, woods and a creek . I loved the sound of the wind in the trees, and birdsong. I loved to hear the insects chirp. Today that land has been turned into a parking lot, and my now-gentrified town is fast losing its natural spaces. City people are arriving, most of whom were raised in apartments and sent to indoor programming at community centres on summer break. They don't know what I mean when I say "it smells like fall"; they just want to pave this place. This artificial world we have created breaks my heart.
16
@MC Our organic world is quickly becoming an inorganic world within our life time.
@Alfred E Newman
We have taken the crust of the earth and placed it on top of what was once alive. When you see satellite photos of cities, they're grey from the paving and concrete. Dead zones.
1
"What we need most is a societal shift in the values we place on living side-by-side with healthy and functioning natural systems."
Aldo Leopold concluded his ground-breaking masterpiece, "A Sand County Almanac" (1949), similarly:
"By and large, our present problem is one of attitudes and implements. We are remodeling the Alhambra with a steam-shovel, and we are proud of our yardage. We shall hardly relinquish the shovel, which after all has many good points, but we are in need of gentler and more objective criteria for its successful use."
EVERYTHING we need to know to successfully conserve Earth's environments can be found in "A Sand County Almanac." The 70 years of research and activism that followed the publication of Leopold's book have achieved little beyond proving that Leopold had it all figured it out long ago. And that few paid much attention.
7
We do nothing sustainably. If the insects are gone, the birds are gone. The wild landscape is now being grazed or razed or plowed or burned or re-purposed for human activities.
We impact 70% of the Earth's non-ice covered land.
We outweigh all our wild prey land mammals, which is "where no Apex Predator has gone before."
So many things need immediate attention, as we hear several times A DAY from people studying various systems worldwide, soils, plastic pollution, CO2, Methane, Permafrost melting, sea rise, ice melt, more storms, fish declines, etc.
It's easy to find a disaster du jour.
Truly, if everyone knew how bad it is, and where we're heading, no one would have children, anywhere, anymore.
This would save many from the inevitable extinction humans will experience before 2100 AD.
IF WE WERE SERIOUS, WE'D ABOLISH PRIVATE PROPERTY AND START TO MANAGE INSTEAD OF EXPLOITING RESOURCES.
And, that's not going to happen, our owners (the top 0.01% ) won't allow it, and it explains why they are trying to own everything. They know what's coming, and think their money will help them and theirs survive the inevitable.
But, extinction can't be bribed...
7
So what are we supposed to say about these articles? The planet is dying. It's dying all around us and the slovenly fools of civilization busy themselves with the next sensation, the stock market, influencers, and selfies.
My grief over what we are doing could overwhelm an ocean but our system always pits the environment against gain. Like Scooge, society measures everything by gain. Societies that did otherwise have been obliterated. And those in power do not care. Too much money is at stake. Although I would argue that our very survival might be worth preserving. But too much entertainment about destruction has been consumed by too many. It's all a game.
To the end of my days my greatest joys will have been found in the natural world. The sound of a bullfrog, spotting a bobcat, smelling the damp in redwood forests, tendrils of mist across a field at dusk, the sound of hissing snow on a clear winter night. My greatest joys. My most profound sorrows.
16
The change is irreversible. The exact things that make modern life possible (industrial farming, roads everywhere, massive cities, insecticides, and fertilizers) are the culprits behind the mass extinction. Unless the human population declines dramatically, the wild things will become rare or vanish altogether.
8
What a timid message from Fitzpatrick and Marra. What we need above all are “new values,” they say.
Wrong. What we need are fewer people and less economic activity. It is ever increasing human numbers and the concomitant increased demand for housing, food, and energy, that is driving habitat loss—the #1 cause of bird and other wildlife declines.
More people means less wild nature, including fewer birds. But don’t expect the tame, well-behaved, well-paid leaders of our environmental organizations to say so, or the scientists who are documenting the relentless decline.
9
I would guess that severe flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes play a part in the decline of the bird population.We have noticed that on one of the Virgin Islands which has weathered three major hurricanes in the last twenty years two species of birds have disappeared- the Kestrels and the Troupials-Both beautiful birds we used to enjoy.
6
After moving from New England to Northern Germany, I never once encountered a mosquito, and rarely any kind of flying insect save a few houseflies. A German colleague related how an insect-eating bird, once prevalent in the region, essentially disappeared over past decade. Apparently the agricultural program has decimated the insect population. Better living through chemistry, so the agri-chem industry claims.
4
I've read books written by early settlers that describe the Hudson River as teeming with wildlife. The train up the Hudson today revealed a few egrets here and there and that's about it. Our lifespans aren't long enough for us to see how much we've lost.
4
A very disturbing article. We all need to wake up. All of us need to be doing everything we can to sustain and increase bird populations. This includes feeding birds and creating the kind of backyard habitat that can sustain and increase the population. Plant bushes that provide berries at various times of years. Leave your bee balm and other perennials stand over the winter instead of cutting them down. The birds will feed on the seeds over the winter. Don't use insecticides. Your yard will look no worse with a few weeds. And you'll save the live of thousands of earthworms which not only enrich the soil, but provide food for birds, especially robins.
8
We observed our first Indigo Bunting 20 or so years ago in the mountains of North Georgia. We haven't seen one for 5 years now.
Just so sad. Tragic what we're doing to this planet of purs.
4
If we created tax incentives to stop developing land, and tax incentives to return land to its original natural state, the world would be a different place in a few short years.
If humans can make money for not developing land, they will. Let's shift the greed from making money on real estate developments to making money on anti-developments. As this article highlights, we need to return habitat to the animals who share the planet with us.
9
Staggering for sure. I’ve noticed the decline in the past 15 years in my backyard in Brooklyn.
3
Nature will rebound, but only up to a point. We must begin to restore natural habitat wherever possible. Restrictive covenants that require lawns should be illegal. Planting non-native invasive trees like the Bradford pear should be illegal. We should be planting native trees to restore the forests that once covered much of this continent. We should require a year of national service of all high school graduates, so they can plant trees, clean up the environment, restore natural habitat, and start returning Earth to a more natural balance.
We can't just talk about climate change. Loss of natural habitat is crucially important, as is degradation of the environment caused by our (and all governments') obsession with consumerism. All these problems must be tackled and as we all know, time is running out. Some successful restorations are being carried out, but the tide is running the other way, and that must change.
8
I can attest to the crisis. Each year I see fewer and fewer birds and fewer species. I am feeding birds and know that planting bird friendly native plants is vital to helping birds survive and that domestic cats must kept it inside. But over development, destruction of forests and wetlands are beyond one person's ability to fix. Legislation to protect bird habitats must happen but it won't with the current president. I worry every day about the birds, bees, trees and the planet as a whole. Every single person must do what he or she can to support the ecosystems around you, resist over development in your community and most of all, vote for, and donate to, Democratic candidates at every level.
9
Maybe if each US state made an effort to protect the habitat of its state bird, that could be a start? DC has wood thrush, Maryland has Baltimore oriole and several states have Western meadowlark. Other species would also benefit from the same habitat and it would be a way to gather support.
7
Wow is all I can say . So go the birds so go we !! It's going down a lot faster than people realize . People need to wake up before we're past the tipping point and we're getting very close very fast .
7
“We can do better, and we must, if only in our own self-interest, because trouble for birds means trouble for us as well.”
Abstractions about self-interest won’t change behavior. Stories about our favorite birds and animals might.
More conservation stories, please.
6
Growing up in southern New Jersey in the 1970’s, I well remember clouds of meadowlarks in the wild and farmed fields. And so, so many insects. No more.
But there truly is hope- the duck example proves this can be reversed. Nature is resilient, and habitat conservation is key. I love that it was HUNTERS who decided to save ducks- and made it happen.
3
Years ago, I thought it was the industrial revolution that began the end of life. But after reading Sapiens, I realized it was when we stopped living as hunter-gatherers that the destruction began.
1
Reading other comments gives me some hope that more and more people are realizing the primary causes for the collapse of ecosystems are the relentless rise in human numbers and an accompanying rise in per capital consumption, goaded on by capitalism and its obsession with endlessly expanding economic growth. Natural systems that support all life are falling apart. The more we as world citizens realize this, the better chance we have of maintaining some bit of the natural world.
5
I really wish that journalists and columnists would stop talking about the "planet's" well-being. The planet earth, and several thousand -- if not several million -- of its species of animals will be here long after we are gone.
We need to take action about things such as the disappearance of 2.9 billion birds not because the planet is in danger, but because their disappearance means, without a doubt, that we, humans, are in danger of disappearing.
7
Pogo had is correctly years ago- we have met the enemy and he is us. Human population growth is unchecked and apparently can’t even be discussed. I recall an article in Science about 1969 that identified water as the most pressing environmental issue. When the glaciers have melted and there isn’t enough water, we will go to war to get it from someone else. Armageddon awaits us but we won’t go down alone. Cockroaches will inherit the earth once again.
4
Yes, the loss of birds is frightening, both in itself and in its dire implications for the planet. We may despair of reining in "development" (aka demolition) of the landscape by special interests, but there is one area where we could act individually to make an immediate change. It is well established that factory farming is devouring habitats, eradicating species, and accelerating climate change...so instead of wringing our hands, why don't we save wildlife and ourselves by switching to a plant-based diet? Far too many of us equate the use of animal products with the enjoyment of life, but that equation is false and is destroying everything we hold (or should hold) dear. Let's realize that we can feast and be merry without gobbling products made from torture and global devastation. Before it's too late, let's consider what "the good life" could be for our children and our fellow beings, including a sky full of birds.
8
The problem is us, humans. We just don't want to share the planet with other species, or if we do, it is grudgingly. The risk we run with our behavior towards the environment is not just to other species but to humanity itself. Jared Diamond has written extensively about past cultures that vanished due to overstepping their sustainable footprint in their ecosystems. It can easily happen to us. It is however very fixable. Family planning to stabilize our population at sustainable levels will solve a lot of our problems.
6
@Scott Werden yes, every educated person should read the Pulitzer Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He describes the decline of numerous human societies that resulted, in part, from a failure to recognize a geographic areas's limited natural resources and the resulting self-destructive practices that depleted those resources. The end result: those human societies disappeared.
Let's try to figure it out. Urban sprawl, pesticides, none native species of birds, windmills, weather, noise and climate change all play a factor. The causes of their decline may vary depending where they live.
I live on a property that until recently developed. It has the usual pesticide and lawn fertilizer but somehow wild life is making a come back. There are more trees then there was and the retention ponds and flood control ditches attract amphibious critters and bird like Ibis (a flock last spring found my roof a convenient resting place for a few days), Egrets and Herons, that eat them. There are many birds including raptors and vultures.
Sad to say since we can't help ourselves and nature can't evolve fast enough to deal with our encroachment I feel we have to treat our planet like a garden. Even if that the only chance for wildlife to survive is with the help of humans.
1
In the past five years living in the Hudson Valley I have watched the disappearance of Blue jays. These were birds common to our backyard every winter, now no longer so.
4
Natural habitat must not be viewed as an expendable luxury? What economic system do the authors have in mind for this is precisely characterizes the chaos engendered by the capitalist system. We need an economic system based upon 1. production for use, not profit, 2. for the people, by the people, 3. and not for individuals amassing mountains of wealth. The Socialist Labor Party advocates such a economic and social system.
2
For decades, a Barn Swallow colony of 12-15 nesting pairs filled my bank barn with their happy twittering. Summer was defined by their arrival in late April and by their prompt departure at the end of August. Whenever I mowed a field or rode through tall grass, swallows swooped in and out of the buggy wake of disturbance.
Four years ago only a single pair returned and in their isolation failed to nest successfully.
Members of the state birding list reassured me that this event was a fluke--perhaps caused by a storm during migration. They predicted that the numbers of this (quite common) bird would soon rebound. So I waited and waited...
My barn remains almost empty of sound, a slightly soul-lost place, the summers are now a bit less joyous.
While I weep for "my" lost swallows, I fear for us all.
19
I remember, as a kid growing up in NE Iowa in the 50's the clouds of red- and yellow-winged blackbirds that blackened the skies when their marshy nesting places were disturbed. My grade school had its own colony as the perimeter area was spring-fed and boggy.
It's not just the birds, either. Countless numbers of us 3rd-, 4th-, 5th- and 6th-grade boys took our first big strides toward manhood in those same areas capturing the fearsome garter snake in our bare hands and using them to terrify the girls on the playground. These humble and absolutely harmless, beneficial critters, too, are steadily dying out.
Pesticides are a major cause, destroying the very food chain the birds and the snakes survive on, when not directly poisoning these essential animals. And habitat loss, too. That marshy, overgrown area by my childhood grade school is now a mature neighborhood, with shade trees, sterile lawns, paved roads and driveways.
It hurts my heart to drive by Castle Hill Grade School now. Oh, the school itself is still recognizable, everything beyond the immediate boundary of the school grounds, that wonderland of snakes, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders and trilling blackbirds vanished decades ago.
15
This news about startlingly declining bird populations is just one warning among thousands that the human species is decimating its own nest. Little to nothing has been done to reverse this trend; indeed, the alarming declines are mounting almost exponentially, all in just a few decades. It appears that the nature of homo sapiens is bent toward the destruction of nature and therefore ourselves.
10
As a birder I've noticed the decline. 20 years ago it was easy to find the birds in many places. Now there are places I can walk and not find a group of birds or the variety I'm accustomed to.
Birds are some of the most beautiful creatures we see each day. They eat insects (which are not as plentiful as they need to be for the birds), help pollinate, and make the songs that fill our ears when we walk outside. But we're destroying their habitat and ours with McMansions, toxic chemicals from factories and mines, and building in every green space possible.
Every time we drain a marsh we deprive wildlife of a habitat. Every time we cut down a forest or build over a meadow we drive out birds that use these places to nest, to forage, to court, etc. When we insist upon immaculate lawns and gardens we are depriving birds again. And we are depriving ourselves of the simple pleasure of watching a robin wrestle with a worm or seeing a woodpecker hammer away at a tall tree stump.
Instead of planting our gardens with flowers and shrubs that birds and butterflies don't like or can't use we can add a few things to encourage them to stay. There are online resources about bird and pollinator friendly plants. Use them. We need birds far more than they need us.
15
Like so many of environmental problems, much could be accomplished by simply eating less beef and by ending government beef subsidizes. The vast majority of grains grown in the United States is fed to cattle. That means that growing those grains accounts for a high percentage of pesticide use, water pollution, and freshwater depletion.
9
@MRod plus greenhouse gas from animal waste products
When was the last time you had to use windscreen washer to clear insects off your windshield? 20 years ago? 30?
10
@Taz
I'm in Texas and honestly it seems less but to answer your question today.
The question should be is what Taz and JoeG find on their windscreen science or proof of climate change?
@Taz Last week?
@Taz last week
I'm watching a marbled murrelet over the bay and thinking about this story.
My boys are at an age where they are beginning to think about having kids or not. I realized the other day that I grow silent on the topic of having kids when it shows up in one discussion or another, and I'm writing this to say to parents who understand the science:
It is incredibly difficult to watch complex life begin to shut down around us at a time when our own kids are just becoming. Everyone here has a right to be here, and also a responsibility to cherish the earth, and work within this one life to heal and protect what we can of it.
For my two sons:
My generation and the ones before screwed this place up, so that no matter what else you do, you will be dealing with that for the rest of your lives. I can hold in my head both the deep sorrow at having handed you something broken, something lesser, and also my pride in who you are, and my joy that you are here in this imperfect world with me. I would not begin to tell you what to do as far as your right to decide about children. But my silence is a result of my love of this world, and my sorrow that we may be nearing the end of our time here. I am a vegetarian. I am someone who marches and advocates and prays for a sustainable planet. I am also a consumer and energy user-- and deeply aware of how much we have squandered.
Love for this planet these days cannot come without a deep sadness, and yet such a love is also essential to being.
14
The windmill farms are killing them by the tens of millions.
4
@Mike Murray MD
Sorry, Doc. Hope you, for the sake of your patients, are better guessing your medicine than you are at guesstimating avian wind turbine bird deaths. The Audubon society estimates the number at between about 150,000 and 325,000 (a different study says 215,000-370,00) each year. That's all turbines, not just per wind farm or wind turbine. About one bird per windmill per year.
1
Evidence?
I hate birds, especially crows...
1
@Aaron, The reason crows have become so abundant is because they are much better at surviving among humans in habitats that have degraded than the birds that are in decline.
8
@MRod
They [crows] are extremely intelligent .. the hoard which occupies my neighborhood call and signal each other when I get the mail .. they waited and watched patiently when a pair of dove built a nest and laid eggs .. they came in and feasted ... Smart animals for sure..
Question: Is a crow an animal? I
People who live in Orange County have never seen a real bird.
And who are the stewards of this natural environment?
The indigenous population of the US and Canada.
And look at what we have done to them.
F3
1
If the birds go--We go. No mystery. No Doubt. You cannot continue to slaughter this planet and figure people will survive as some kind of god-like species. This illusion of Capitalism is Fatal. We are all attached--birds, fish, bears. We aren't special
12
Can you briefly explain how that works, i.e. nature is degraded and then we go?
it not just the birds, all wildlife is faced with extinction --
In part this is because we have have a ponzi economic scheme which relies on growth in human population, therefore the business boosters such as Trump don't question the impact;
a faction of the far right opposes discussion of the impact of human population as being sacrilegious;
and much of the democratic party labels anyone who questions the impact of human population as being racist - since it is mostly people of color who account for the surging human population; such as 30 million additional people in Africa each year. Indeed so powerful is the resulting censorship, that they have manufactured the climate crisis as being the cause when in fact that is but one symptom of the impact of human population. Question it and you are asked to leave the party.
Of the animals that are allowed to live many of them are kept in factory farms in the most horrible of conditions; intelligent animals being kept in the dark until they are led out from their sheds to be slaughtered.
It is amazing that people speak with horror of the holocaust, the slaughter in Rwanda and the Armenian's slaughter in Turkey - all things in the past ---- yet they are mute when it comes to the treatment of all the living things on the planet -
which as science now reveals have a capacity for joy and sorrow as well.
10
Already grieving our losses
Vote as though life depended on it.
7
Most of the Trump political articles have thousands of comments. Yet something as egregious and alarming as this article on the awful plight of our birds, only has a few hundred.
No wonder the birds are disappearing.
3
Rachel Carson was right in Silent Spring, who knew!
4
Human population on the planet in 1970 - 3.7 billion.
Human population in 2019 - 7.7 billion.
14
"All these statistics together underscore the pervasive character of the Anthropocene, the new geological epoch defined by the planet’s natural systems being altered profoundly by human behavior"
Baloney.
Show me evidence, not progressive leftist propaganda catch-phrases.
Show me that you have enough information, over a long enough period of time, to prove that this is not a natural fluctuation.
Show me that you have evidence directly linking exclusively-man-mad phenomena with specific population die-offs.
Until you do a much better job of presenting all the facts, you should stick to research and stop conflating political opinion with science.
1
Ok, so let’s say it is natural bird fluctuation... but think about the possibility that it is not natural and the science of the UN paperwork is correct. Why not think about that and help us curb our overwhelming impact on the earth? How can it do anything but help all of us.
Can you not admit that using pesticides is harmful to the grass and living things in the food chain which eats that grass?
Can you not admit that we humans are part of the natural world and that we try to manipulate and control that natural world rather than live graciously within it? I agree with the thought that we try to have little impact on the world.
Let’s just look at one aspect of our “innovations”: Plastic - Can you not admit that we humans are abusing the world by our pollution with plastics? There is an uninhabited island in middle of the pacific which has over five tons of plastic; plastic tops and plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic rope from commercial fishing it goes on and on. It floated onto the island from the sea. How is that a natural phenomenon, since plastic in its form is unnatural and something we manufacture?
How is plastic, something that did not exist 100 years ago, a fluctuation? It won’t dissolve for a very long time and it is floating in your body right now. Any pesticides or toxic chemicals it has come in contact with has been absorbed and is now leeching into your body. How is that part of the natural biology?
3
I get the feeling that, like the Trump administration, any science that conflicts with your conservatism is just left-wing politics and “ fake news.”
Didn't you get the memo: The Planet is Done.
Plan accordingly.
2
Very LEFT DEMS are the answer because we are the only ones that care about the planet and life VS profit and greed.
1
I'll never forget the horror I felt when a conservative friend told me that "ecology is socialism". We live in an age of extreme ignorance, woefully inadequate concern for anything other than economic activity that values growth above all else.
There are signs these All American values are changing. Unfortunately, we can't even agree on the truth when it's obvious much less when difficult to grasp.
My 2 cents is that ecosystems and perhaps even species other than humans need the right to equal protection under the law so they have standing to sue big business when they abuse their rights to life.
Think about the change that brings. It may be the only mechanism for forcing our species to act in a way that gives us all a chance for survival. Because the logical conclusion of mass extinction and global environmental collapse is the end of human dominion. What profit is there in money if it poops in the well we drink from?
3
Just one more nail in the coffin.
2
If you are the biological parent of more than two children you have, personally, contributed to population increase.
We must stop making excuses and control our population.
Having more than two children should be just as unacceptable as murder, because that's what we're doing to our planet.
We inherited paradise, and are turning it into a sewer.
5
This is why it is called the Sixth Great Extinction, human driven and with the combination of global warming and an exploding human population (2 billion more of us by 2050) the end game is clear.
And the more you know, the worse it is. Maybe it was the NYT that reported several years ago on a little-known branch of the Dept. of Agriculture that kills birds on behalf of farmers, including such unlikely species as red-wing blackbirds. Millions of birds per year. And estimates of kills by skyscrapers range from 400 million to a billion.
6
Root cause? Overpopulation.
Yet what do Democrats, liberals, and progressives want?
Let in more people to overwhelm the ecosystem. Brilliant.
Immigration and population control are essential, not having anything to do with racism, just mathematics and common sense.
4
And right wing Conservatives want to outlaw abortion, restrict birth control, and forbid sex education. Evangelicals instead of cherishing God’s. Creation, are too with policing everyone’s private sexual behavior and filled with fear that somewhere is woman is having sex and not being punished for it with the birth of a child.
Most immigrants when offered the opportunity for a better life, adapt the norms of the country they enter and produce fewer children so as to provide those children with a better life.
So there is plenty of blame for overpopulation on the right.
And that does not even consider the obsession, the Right has with destroying the environment by allowing businesses and farmers to pollute, use pesticides, and poison the environment in the name of “freedom” and profit. They also scorn anyone who cares for animals and wants to preserve land for any non-human creatures or this habitat.
You would think most people would want to spare their children and grandchildren of the terrible effects of environmental destruction and maintain diversity of life while sharing the earth with other creatures, but you’d be wrong, it appears.
1
@Raz, Are you advocating allowing displaced people to die as a way to control population?
1
Immigration is the problem? How about Monsanto??
A vote for any climate change denier is a vote for suicide. It is a situation analogous to someone determined to drive while drunk. If they want to kill themselves, do it in private. Just don't take others with you.
4
Why no mention of wind farms in this article? Per Audubon society they kill between 100,000 - 300,000 birds a year (https://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-birds)?
1
@Somebody, Yes that sounds like a lot, but is a paltry contributor to the problem. Cats and window strikes are an order of magnitude worse causing hundreds of millions of bird deaths per year compared to a few hundred thousand deaths from wind turbines. Power lines, communication towers, cars, and pesticides are also a far bigger problem than wind turbines.
1
@Somebody The solar farms where the solar is focused on a gatherer, birds who fly into the "stream" are vaporized immediately. Wow, green energy, ain't it great.
If you are a naturalist, you have been watching insects and birds and mammals disappearing for decades right in front of your eyes in despair and you didn't need the media to tell you. Please learn about the birds native to your area and plant a few native plants for the insects and birds. Take out your useless lawn. Don't use pesticides and herbicides or rodent poisons! You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Don't be a liberal hypocrite. Best of all, don't have babies--I am here to extol the benefits and joys of the child-free life! Or at least be responsible and have only two at most!
6
There are too many people.
5
@rexl Soylent Green is the answer.
Fireworks one of the most overrated things there is. Kills many birds.
1
Meanwhile, homo sapiens, ruled by anti-birth control, anti-science zealots keep breeding.
Nature is screaming at us. Can we listen, and respond at the voting booth?
3
I’ve observed a decline in blue jays ... and then a resurgence. Anecdotal, not scientific, but I hope a good sign.
One thing this story does not talk about is the part played in the loss of native birds and animals by the Wildlife Services of the U.S.Department of Agriculture. In 2017 the Agriculture Department killed 1.3 million native animals and birds. This included the killing of 624,845 Red Wing Blackbirds. Other "non target" birds killed were Chickadees, Bluebirds, Cardinals, Grouse, Eagles, Hawks, Owls, Swans, the list goes on. So if we are wondering where all the Red Wing Blackbirds have gone we can look to our own government. The killing is done primarily to benefit the agriculture industry but what is the true cost of such a controversial policy and what does it accomplish? More information on native wildlife-killing by the Agriculture Department is available from www.biologicaldiversity.org.
8
We have plenty of birds in PA. In fact, no lie, this is the first time I ever went to the NYTimes site let alone create an account to comment. I digress - when I came home today there were 20-25 robins & mourning doves in my back yard. That doesn't happen. Very odd. So anyway, Mother Earth is ok. The land is beautiful outside those city walls. :)
2
@Shane Sort of like Trump wishing for a little global warming during a cold, snowy day in Washington DC? Shane - please understand that as weather and climate are different, so are bird populations in your backyard and across North America.
Your observation is isolated and anecdotal. The Earth is not OK.
1
I recall seeing blue jays on a regular basis in the 80s here in Cambridge, MA, so common that they weren't considered a sighting.
Now I consider myself fortunate to spot just one per year, although it appears that they may have slightly rebounded locally. Any progress is now measured in single birds at a time, like a recent Great Blue Heron this summer on the river.
3
Talk about a canary in the coal mine - we have 3 BILLION canaries in our coal mine. And from what I've been seeing - trashing of insufficient enviromental and ecological protections standards we have - I'm growing more and more pessimistic about humans as a species surviving the catastrophes already coming down on us.
Talk about fouling your own nest...
2
Recently traveled to a beach resort in a relatively remote part of Mexico and was told there were no birds because they had been eaten by local peoples.
How much longer do we have? Not a lot, I'm thinking. Very sad.
RIP humans.
This makes me so so very sad. It has occurred in my adult lifetime, in the time in which I've been a birder and I've been able to discern this for years now. What is wrong with us that we would let this happen? (Don't answer that, I know.) I so miss not seeing the Western Meadowlark and Lark Buntings like I used to. The Silent Spring has arrived.
Heartbreaking, but hardly surprising. The decline in insect biomass has already been well reported, and who eats that biomass? Birds. Loss of food, loss of habitat, and disruption of migration patterns guarantees shrinking bird populations. At least some birds -- I've noticed both the dearth of small songbirds, and the increase in geese. They no longer migrate, reproduce prolifically, and poop everywhere. Possibly the geese' overpopulation is also crowding out competing species. No matter how the climate changes, some species win.
It's amazing how people can look at a sick and dying planet and conclude nothing is wrong. But *are* they concluding nothing is wrong? No. They are concluding that they don't want to hear about it because it's unpleasant and they might have to give up something... like their gasoline powered vehicles.
As far as I can tell, we're doomed because the people who refuse to pay attention to reality are also the people who are in power. As the song says, "If being stupid is your fate/then relax, 'cuz it's too late."
Truly, life is hard -- but it's harder when you're dumb.
3
The biggest culprit are the giant windmills erected everywhere in a foolish effort to generate "alternative energy" by paying China to forge massive windmill blades in factories burning soft coal.
1
To my fellow baby boomers: We don't have a lot of time left to bring about change. We need to get our stuff together now and fight this. Big time.
This is an insane quantity of loss. The green new deal may not go far enough! When will people demand short term sacrifice for the life of our planet? It's up to us! To paraphrase "What will it benefit a man to gain an SUV yet forfeit his children"
No pun intended, but we are speaking about the canary in the coal mine, only, when the canary dies we, as a species living in that mine, pay it no heed.
Get another canary. They're cheap. It's the American way.
cough cough cough
I am completely filled with despair. What on earth have we done to this beautiful planet? We are criminals not fit to exist!
2
Worldwide, both domestic and feral cats are destroying an estimated 4 billion birds a year. Keep your cat inside the house! And put out some water and birdseed. Then there are all the stupid nonindigenous plants that the developers buy up because they are cheap planting and that provide no food for native birds. Living in New Mexico I am planting cactus. The cactus bring the insects, lizards, roadrunners and provide food and nesting and require very little water. They also keep the drug addicts from climbing over the fence to rob my neighbors' and my house.
2
Please, please stop having children. We need to stop populating the world with more and more humans, who in turn pollute and consume (just by nature of being alive). Same for buying more pets from breeders.
Instead of all the money and energy spent on raising more offspring, let us all focus on taking care of the ones living here now on this earth, and preserve what little we have left of mother nature.
1
The single biggest actions that governments across the world can and should take is protection of habitats. That, more than pollution and rising temperatures (which are serious problems by themselves!), will help save species from mass extinctions.
I recently saw a video by Veritasium on youtube (check it out, it's an awesome channel), which explained that upto 95% of a tree's mass is carbon from CO2. It really hammers home the point of how effective trees and plants are at sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, and conversely how much CO2 will be released (exacerbating the climate change problem) by deforestation.
TL;DR: Protect habitats; save species; save the climate.
Unspeakably heartbreaking. We cannot go on like this. Good people must act to preserve habitat to give these creatures and so many more of our fellow beings a chance.
------------------------------------
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing
--WS Merwin, from "For A Coming Extinction"
no mention of wind power... birders and scientists must speak up on this topic.
2
"What we need most is a societal shift in the values we place on living side-by-side with healthy and functioning natural systems."
Don't tell Mr. Trump this. Once he hears the information and evidence, he will grab his thickest Sharpie pen and issue executive orders that add birds to to his lengthy enemies list and then make sure this government does everything possible to destroy bird habitats and the birds that go with it.
This is going on right now here in Utah:
"Environmental groups have halted a controversial plan to cut down 30,000 acres of forest within southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Interior Board of Appeals ruled Monday that the Bureau of Land Management’s plan failed to consider its effects on migratory birds."
Hear or read the story on NPR in Salt Lake City:
https://www.kuer.org/post/appeals-board-nixes-blm-plan-level-utah-forest
But please don't tell Mr. Trump about what Utah just did, or he will treat Utah like California in his zeal to punish states that defy his executive orders to destroy living things and the earth as fast as possible.
1
Where I live, I have red-winged blackbirds up the wazoo.
Know what I miss from my youth? Red-headed woodpeckers. Indigo buntings. Bobolinks. That's what I miss.
1
I miss these birds. But I wish someone would come up with a way to reduce the crow population, they are mega-annoying and attack other species.
1
"Nearly one-third of the wild birds in the United States and Canada have vanished since 1970, a staggering loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s ecosystem is unraveling."
We are even more stupid than The Eastern Islanders who destroyed their island.
We have the science.
3
save the birds, stop all wind turbines and solar facilities
1
The root cause of this catastrophy : our greed.
they probably went to China with the jobs.
To save species, slow warming & have a future, we must ramp down economic activity instead of maniacally increasing it.
Since 1950 global GDP has shot up like a rocket. https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth
So has global temperature.
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/
So has species extinction and human population.
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/extinction/index.html
It's crystal clear. The planet can't take what we do NOW. But politicians, corporations, economists & the media tell us economic growth is heathy, natural & essential. 4% annual growth doubles an economy's size in 19 years. Unlimited, exponential growth on a finite planet is a necessary fantasy when over 90% of money is created by banks as debt which must be repaid with interest. 'No one loses at musical chairs as long as the music never stops.'
No politician talks about slowing down—or even stabilizing—the economy. Not even Gov. Inslee or Elizabeth Warren. It would be political suicide.
The NYT sends profoundly mixed messages. Articles like this one appear alongside 'Can Anyone Hold the Global Economy Together?' where economic historian Adam Tooze bemoans Trumps erratic trade wars & the lack of global economic leadership spooking investors. "...globalization is no longer supported by the combination of investor-friendly economic policy and congenial politics...long taken for granted."
We must ramp down. Now. No matter how painful.
2
Devastating news. I keep bird feeders out and have natural meadow garden. Pollinators and birds, ok and squirrels help the planet. What is that man in White House (name not to be mentioned) doing to help the climate? Reversing all protections.
Sad from all this. What to do more?
by-products of humans kill birds. Do a web search: birds eat microbeads
2
One of mandkinds most deadly contraptions for birds are windmills. They also spoil the natural landscape, particularly when offshore in view of land. Stop building them.
1
For all the cat defenders, they kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds per year in the US. Keep them inside or bell them.
1
@muddyw, Bell's dont work! But wide multicolored collars do- so-called clown collars.
The world’s canarys stopped singing long ago. We will sleep forever in the hole we dug for ourselves.
And yet, an idiotic percentage of the human population is too uneducated, too religious, too self-absorbed to care. And there you have it. We are nothing more than a cosmic infestation of a biome we call a planet.
The next time you feel inclined to marvel human consciousness, consider our conscious inclination to extinction and the destruction of all life in the process.
In environmental biological terms, we're the only keystone species whose removal would once again allow the planet's biodiversity to thrive.
There's never been another species like us. And, at least here, there never will be again.
1
The birds and the bees were always much more than just a sly reference to sex. They are eco system barometers whose very existence, numbers and well-being provide crucial indicators of the health of our planet. Do we really have 35-40% of the United States voting population willing to approve the never ending disgraceful performance of this viciously inept anti-environment President?
2
It's disturbing to know that when future generations learn about the 'birds and the bees', the talk they'll receive will be about how these creatures' disappeared at the hands of humans living today.
1
Come down to Arizona and you will find an abundance of birds that you would never have guessed the desert could be home to. It's the loss of wetlands throughout the world that is discouraging. The reforming of the indiscriminate use of pesticides and reclaiming of wetlands is crucial to the survival of the bird species.
1
I read the 2017 German bug study and I've now become the 65 year old "Bugs on the Windshield" crazy lady of doom. I remind my older friends that forty years ago every gas fill-up involved cleaning the bugs on the windshield, and I torment my younger friends with the story. As the study observed, the decline was so gradual we didn't notice. And then one day the birds are gone. I miss the birds too numerous to count on my lake, but I fear it's too late.
4
As a child of the 1950s I can remember watching flocks of birds fly over my home. They would rest in our trees and I (OK, birds I apologize) liked to throw a rock into the trees to watch them blast away. It was spectacular.
Haven't seen anything like this in 60 years.
Birds are dying. Insects are dying. Remember driving and having to stop every 50 miles to clean your windshield? Now it's rare to get a single bug strike.
We'll all be dead in 100 years. At least cockroaches and alligators will survive.
1
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published on September 27, 1962 and highlighted how DDT and other pesticides were decimating eagles and other birds - the result was the ground swell of awareness and political will to cause a Republic President, Richard Nixon, to form the EPA. Yet today the wrecking ball in the oval office is dismantling what remains of the EPA. Here in Missouri, I have noticed steep declines in the number of Hawks and the number of starlings, humming birds, red headed woodpeckers, cardinals, field sparrows, blue jays as well as several other endemic species for several years. I no longer see the same number of possums or rabbits either and even the squirrel and chipmunk populations are in decline. What we are witnessing is a collapse of the biosphere due to endemic pesticide use and weed killer use by residential communities and farms. Once the bee colonies collapsed, bird populations could not be far behind. Worse, we used to see hundred of monarch butterflies on their migration to Mexico, and now we see only a handful. Climate change is not helping but much of this is due to man made pollution which is simply staggering. The average suburban neighborhood is poisoning the world with hundred of gallons of weed killers per year, all of which gets into the ground water. We are in crisis and American knows this to be true, but yet a good portion of the country continues to support a POTUS who denies climate change is real.
9
We must remember that not only are the birds disappearing, but their food sources are as well. Insects are disappearing across the world, and we are building up historic migration routes and nesting areas.
Rewild and repair old industrial sites.
Plant native species in the yard or in your garden.
Instead of building on new sites that must be cleared, force businesses to use buildings that have already been built.
4
The United States is grossly deficient in a land use ethic! Land use planning, which would include the permanent setting aide and protection of large areas of undisturbed woodlands, edge habitat and open meadowlands, along with wetland areas, is the exception, rather than the rule, in land development proposals. Developers (most) cry when they are asked to not fill in a wetland, or to submit a tree protection plan as part of the overall improvement plans for a particular project. And when it comes to enforcing such restrictions, well-we won't go there. Suffice to say, it's a disgrace!
And the authors are naive in believing that Farm Bill provisions come anywhere close to hitting the mark in having a substantial impact upon bird conservation: a mere drop in the bucket. Until a land use ethic is legislated, enforced and internalized that puts nature-something WE ARE PART OF! above profit, the losses will continue to pile up. And such an ethic will never be adopted as long as money rules.
For trump and his supporters, this is a non-story. They have made it abundantly clear that they don't care about the environment, and are actively involved in continuing to soon-to-be irreversable harm.
2
I have always said that awaking in the morning to the sound of birds singing in the adjoining trees is one of my greatest pleasures. It is terrifying to think that could go away in the near future.
2
The elephant in the room, that nobody talks about, and yet is at the root of any environmental discussion, is people and the ever ending explosion of the worlds population. We can talk about solutions, technical ones, lifestyle ones, but our planet is a closed system and more people are taxing that system beyond repair. Malthus was right! We may have been able to slow down the inevitable with agricultural technology, and well minded people and thought, but it is a juggernaut, seemingly unstopable.
6
For years, the sun went down and the bats came out, over my head, at dusk in my Cape Cod yard. I haven't noticed a single one in the last ten. Four years ago my feeders were popular with bluebirds in winter. I haven't seen a single one of them since either. As I write this, the hummingbirds are outside my kitchen window, feverishly fattening up for their trip to Mexico for the winter, but I wonder if I'll see them again. It is so distressing, especially for those of us who really do care, who conserve as best we can, and who do everything in our individual power to protect the natural world.
6
@Maureen Your comment is very sad.
There really is only one solution. The number of people on the earth must go down drastically. It is touch and go as to whether nature or humans will solve this problem first. Whichever way it happens it will not be pretty.
3
As shocking as is the news that North America has 3 billion fewer birds than 50 years ago, to those like me who have taken pleasure in birdwatching over this past 50 years it isn't a surprise. Although I don't make a detailed count of the number or variety of birds that I've seen when I take my field glasses and scope out to have a look-see, it's been obvious to me, especially recently, that both the numbers and diversity isn't what it was when I began in the 1960s. I'm sure there are multiple causes, but the most important must be the loss of habitat, the creation of monocultures in farming regions, overuse of pesticides resulting in fewer insects as well as poisoned birds , and increasingly climate change which is changing the ranges of many species. We can do something to mitigate the effects, but that requires judgment and political will and they also are in serious environmental decline.
The Interior Department, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, administers the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This is the broadest U.S. law that protects birds. Shortly after the Trump administration took over, its Interior Department issued a legal opinion reversing the Department’s long-standing, bi-partisan interpretation that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibited both incidental and direct take of birds (incidental being death because of open chemical waste lagoons or oil spills, for example), so that the Act will only be applied to prohibit direct take (deliberate shooting or trapping). The Trump administration’s reinterpretation has been challenged by New York and seven other states, as well as the Audubon Society, American Bird Conservancy and NRDC, in federal court. The Department of Justice sought to dismiss the challengers’ complaints based on an alleged lack of standing—that the plaintiffs have not been sufficiently injured to maintain their lawsuits. The presiding federal judge recently denied the motion to dismiss, and the litigation proceeds. Just another example of how the Trump administration is going out of its way to harm the environment at the behest of certain industries.
3
Domestic cats allowed to roam freely in Australia have decimated native species there. According to this article, larger birds like ducks and geese have gained population in North America. Domestics cats would not pose a threat to larger birds. It's seems to be the small bird species are in decline. I suspect domestic cats allowed to roam freely in North America have played a significant role in the decline of small bird species.
1
@Jeff R. I disagree that domestic cats would necessarily cause such a decline. For 30 years my husband and I and our two indoor/outdoor cats lived in a house in a wild bird refuge, where we kept 13 bird feeders and a couple of nesting boxes going all the time. We also had scores of daily avian visitors from outside our property. Our two cats kept the various neighborhood cats away from our yard, while leaving the birds alone.
Ask any ornithologist, the cat overpopulation is deadly for birds:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cats-invasive-species-in-your-backyard-cbsn-originals/
3
The world is overpopulated. Close the border to migrants, de-incetivize suburban sprawl, expand wildlife preserves and move to a carbon neutral economy.
2
My comment is only indirectly related to this deeply important and tragic issue of species extinction. The report itself like much of important research is trapped behind a science journal paywall. Unlike many paywalls this one allows access to the report on a limited basis for $30.00. I've been using the internet since dial up access (actually took coding in high school in the early 1970's with a combination telephone modem, keyboard, printer with access to Michigan State, but I digress) & remember the internet and science research access before paywalls. Much of this research is paid for by public universities and government and then hidden away from public access so private journals & others can make "oodles" of money gate keeping it for profit. It has become an exploitative industry that blocks citizen scientists from understanding and contributing to solving these challenges. Its not lost on me that the data came from volunteers with Audubon and the results are blocked from those very volunteers.
5
I have lived in Panamá for 10 years and have often thought it odd that a country the size of Kentucky has more bird species than the US and Canada combined. Now I believe I know why.
@James Ricciardi - GREED, selfishness, stupidity along with corrupt elected officials got us here. I pray come 2020 we right the wrongs and begin a new more balanced fair and compassionate direction in America with ecology in mind. We'll see...
1
In one way, this article seems to back up my own experience. I have always lived in Ohio and am almost 40. I was an avid bird enthusiast at a young age. Blue jays were common in Southern and Northern Ohio in my experience prior to age 22 or so, but now I rarely see blue jays.
On the other hand, I do notice more birds of prey. It was rare to see a hawk and bald eagles were never seen when I was a kid. I see a bald eagles pretty regularly now and various hawk species seem to be almost common along roadways and even in urban neighborhoods. I have heard or seen owls several times these last few years.
I also never saw a turkey in Ohio until I was probably almost 18. Now they seem pretty common.
I hope our smaller bird species can make a turn around with or without our help.
2
I have given contributions to several organizations who say their purpose is to help conserve wildlife habitats. Yet I am troubled by not knowing what they have done and how they spend the contributions. All now send me numerous requests for contributions and offer me all sorts of "free" gifts. I would very much like to know what is the most effective way to contribute for real results and what organizations are not spending more on solicitations than I have contributed. I would really like to do something to help.
2
Saving remaing habitats is not enough. Our neighborhoods, whether city or suburb, are ground zero for species extinction. In addition to containing cats and making windows safely visible we must plant natives in our yards and garden without pesticides and herbicides.
5
I love my birds. Just now outside my window I saw a red-tailed hawk make a pass near the bird feeder. Little birds scatter but return again shortly.
There's a new species of woodpecker here in the last 5 years or so. I looked it up on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. It's a ladderback, normally found at a slightly higher elevation. Happy to see you little fellers!
I've been donating to the Cornell Lab ever since.
3
God gave us dominion, and so we are trashing the place for money, convenience, and so there can be more souls to sing His praises. The joy of animals and birds who celebrate spring does not count because they do not have souls that can be saved or lost. God is like Trump in wanting everyone to constantly praise Him and keep Him always at the center of their attention. Animals do their own thing and have no consciousness of God (at least not as such) and so He, like Trump, has no interest in them.
@sdavidc9 So that’s what motivates Pope Francis and the religious right.
1
As I kid in the Midwest I loved the sound of bobwhite quail. It is not a mystery why that sweet sound is rarely heard: The Midwest is one huge factory farm. No longer are there fallow fields or unplanted strips where the birds and their insect food could thrive.
Are there programs for wildlife set asides that pay as much as a crop might earn? These days not planting land may be more profitable than planting it.
2
I’ve definitely heard and seen fewer birds on our property over the past ten years. Fewer butterflies, too. And our more and more of our trees are not looking healthy. It’s quite alarming. The pace is actually frightening.
7
Just ride a bike along a rural highway. You will see a dead bird about every 100 yards or so. Through casual observation it seems a bird can often avoid a car going 60 mph or less, anything more than that they don’t have a chance.
5
I was a volunteer for the Breeding Bird Survey for nearly two decades, running two BBS routers in Pennsylvania for those years. I witnessed -- every June -- the population declines this article reports. But still, the threats continue unstopped. This is our natural heritage, folks. It is past time to stop sprawl and stop destroying our natural heritage.
4
I've been feeding birds most of my adult life. Believe it or not, I started doing it to entertain my house cats, hanging feeders where they could be seen from the cats' favorite windows. Then I continued because I enjoyed it. No one else in the area seems to feed the birds, and I'm afraid it will be tough for them when I'm no longer here. I can still attract literally dozens of blue jays when I put out peanuts in the shell as I fill feeders with seed, but I've started to notice that the chickadees seem to have gone missing.
3
This is awful. I thought I was wrong when I saw certain birds, certainly blue jays less and less.
My cat goes out at night. He can't catch anything.
I was hoping to get serious about being a bird watcher when I retired in a few years. I love them.
2
While we should all advocate and vote for better environmental policy - which is urgently needed - this is also an issue that individuals can do something about in their own lives. Spay and neuter, and keep cats indoors. Don't use pesticides, and especially not neonicotinoids, in gardens and lawns. Urge your local garden center not to sell neonicotinoids, and to provide information to gardeners about it (if you own a garden center, you should already be doing this!) Urge homeowners associations to implement more environmentally friendly policy. If you have a large enough outdoor space, use it to create habitat and/or grow plants that feed and house birds and pollinators. Reduce the amount of space dedicated to lawn alone. Provide bird feeders, bird houses, and bird baths with unpolluted water. If birds often fly into your windows, take steps to keep them from doing so (methods available with simple google search). Support conservation groups and efforts. We desperately need better environmental policy, which is being eroded by the day, and we need to keep fighting for that, which will have the greatest impact overall on things like clean water and agricultural policy. But it's still something we can affect individually - especially homeowners.
9
What will get us, maybe sooner than we all think, will be something we aren’t expecting. Like the catastrophic collapse of insects leading to worldwide starvation.
7
@Gub
I thought this when I heard about the decline of the bee population. I do think this is how it will play out, and soon.
There's likely a "next step" article to follow this one which will delineate the progression of the ecological disaster we are witnessing.
When I have visited the cemetery in my Wisconsin hometown in recent years, I've wondered where all the grackles have gone. I guess this partly explains it. Sadly, the wetland birds are now probably going to be threatened by the current occupant of the White House.
Protecting the wild lands that remain is important. But that effort tends to move at a snails pace, dependent on our broken political system.
Perhaps a better way would be "re-wilding" all those acres that we've turned into waste land for no good reason. The abandoned malls and factories and the vast parking lots that surround them, the abandoned farmland that is no longer profitable to plow and plant, the empty urban lots waiting year after year for some buyer who never comes, the roadsides and highway meridians, the paved over "pocket" parks in our towns and cities; look around and you'll see acre after acre of waste land.
All of this land could be planted with native trees and wild flowers and grasses. We would be helping the birds and the insects and ourselves.
If you walk in the woods of New York and throughout New England you find old stone walls. All of this land was once cleared for farmland. But the farmers went west and the land re-wilded all by itself. Now the walls and the gorgeous woods are the blessing that's left.
Think how much more beautiful this nation could be if we just removed the pavement and the junk and the rubble all around us and let Nature do her thing.
296
@laurence
Yes, please.
It certainly would help for all the avowed Climate Mayors to implement the Green City and Green Community ideas proposed by the National Wildlife Federation, to begin making the vision you offer a reality.
Also, those with yards can start right now. Less mowing, more growing. No more waiting.
23
@laurence
Yes, please.
It certainly would help for all the avowed Climate Mayors to implement the Green City and Green Community ideas proposed by the National Wildlife Federation, to begin making the vision you offer a reality.
Also, those with yards can start right now. Less mowing, more growing. No more waiting.
4
@laurence
Good idea, but according to the USFS, ~6000 acres of open space in the US disappear every day to development. Our growth at all costs of ever more consumers and workers economy demands it. The Ponzi scheme of an always growing population and economy is what got us here. Continuing the same unsustainable model won't get us out of it. The only sustainable way forward is a falling population and moving to a sustainable economic model. Something, btw, that no national politician or party has called for.
42
My father took my sister and I bird-watching along the Long Island Coast in Connecticut when we were growing up. I'm almost 60, and the declining populations of birds has been apparent for a long time. This article is spot on. One more thing to remind us that we're the most destructive animal on the planet.
2
Monsanto/Bayer RoundUp lawsuit. Thousands and thousands with cancer. Birds can't sue. Pesticides are designed to kill and they work.
Have we gone off the cliff and we've all just resigned ourselves to closing our eyes till we hit the ground? And donald just puts the pedal to the metal.
8
Poison has been normalized in our society by Bayer-Monsanto & friends and oil & gas companies.
It’s high-time we reject the normalization of poison in our environment.
5
This is a food-chain result.
Most all of these birds mostly eat insects.
The insects they eat are either dying of pesticides or carrying them on their bodies.
The crash in avian populations is directly associated with our extreme dependance of these petrochemical's volatile transmittal to their intended victims and the result of mutant anomalies derivation of defensive adaptations in the insect populations.
In other words, you are what you eat.
5
Have you heard about the feral cats in Australia that now occupy the entire continent and are feast and reproducing without a natural predator.
The unintended consequences of humans wanting a kitty but not being a responsible pet owner.
Best of luck to our children. You are welcome for the mess the baby boomers have made of this planet.
Steven Pinkers Enlightenment indeed.
Cats and birds don’t mix:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cats-invasive-species-in-your-backyard-cbsn-originals/
1
It is deeply disturbing that our country has produced the largest organization on Earth that is committed to denying the destruction that mankind is visiting upon the planet. Of course I speak of the Republican Party. Their intransigence on these issues is astounding. If they do not change their ways, they will be directly responsible for the total deterioration of a livable environment for our children and beyond. How does one explain their foolishness. Unfortunately more often than not they seem to ignore these issues precisely because it bothers the rest of us so much. (You know the “owning the libs thing”) It is hard not to despise them for their nihilism. And these are the people whose alleged God tells them to care for the planet and all its beings. Sadness pervades for those of who care.
3
If this is the case on our continent, I wonder what has happened (or is going to happen) on the East Asian and South Asian landmasses. Perhaps the UN's interest in this environmental change will result in a worldwide focus on preventing the complete collapse of these wonderful creatures.
1
Cats, CATS. The population of cats in the US has soared.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/198102/cats-in-the-united-states-since-2000/
As this article finally gets around to mentioning, cats are bird killers, significant bird killers.
Do gooders think they are being helpful by neutering feral cats. This keeps them from breeding. It does nothing to keep them from killing any small critters that move: birds, lizards, mice.
Feral cats should be caught and killed. This source of bird mortality is controllable.
5
@Kurfco
Humans, HUMANS.
You really need to do better research.
There's no cavalry coming. The aberration we call our federal government will likely spike these stats in ten years if their services aren't terminated after the next election. So let's do it ourselves - don't quit!
1
It has been written elsewhere that to combat global warming we need to plant a trillion more trees. But take a look at urban development rules in most cities and you'll find that developers are given unfettered authority to cut down trees on the property they develop. In my own city, despite having an urban forestry department, evergreen trees are cut down everywhere for new housing and commercial development. Sure, new trees are planted, but they are not the type of native trees that are cut down. So birds that rely on these evergreens are losing their habitat daily. Until preserving native trees becomes an urban priority, we will continue to cause the extinction of bird species everywhere in this country.
3
Most of the rapidly declining species (but not all) are migratory. This means that we have "our" songbirds and many shorebirds here only for half a year or less. We have limited control over the deforestation in lands to our south used for monoculture cropland or mining or pesticide use or anything else.
Then try to tell public officials, and sophisticated urban types that their high rise condos and the office towers now lit up with decorative theme lighting year round are a problem with night flying migratory flocks. Result: collisions with structures or confusion with birds dropping out exhausted and crushed by cars or caught by predators.
Then there is the uncaring ignorance, even among persons who are "woke" on climate issues. Far too many are ignorant of all the factors including habitat loss, pesticides, loss of prey, introduced exotics, bright night lighting, and other things not directly related to a warming climate. Once the activists hear that some lose any interest. Some regard ornithology as the province of nice little old people or "nerds" with field glasses.
5
Don't put down climate activists by projecting onto us your fears. Come join us in fighting to protect the climate, the planet's ecosystems AND all the life forms. Join is! We need you! Start by going to the Climate Strike nearest you, tomorrow!
2
Interesting. The pages of this publication are full of commenters proclaiming that we have plenty of room for way more people. This is usually done while supporting ever higher numbers of immigrants and population growth in general. Looks like the numbers don't back that up. Any given environment can be used to grow only so much biomass. It can be a planet that supports a varied collection of species that are in a balance that allows for small changes in any species number to go up and down over time or you can have a planet, like earth, that is being used to grow and support billions of humans at the expense of almost every other species. The bottom line, as always, is you can grow an extravagant over supply of humans, while not growing most everything else, or you can reduce the birth rate of humans and allow other species some chance of continuing to exist. You can't do both.
3
I am not at all surprised. This trend will continue and at this point is almost irreversible. I graduated college in biology and biochemistry. I have continued to study biology all my life. I have loved the biological miracle which is planet earth and it’s ecology all my life. I wish I had never lived long enough to witness its demise.
4
Remember taking a road trip 30 years ago and all the bugs on the windshield when you stopped for gas? Now there are no bugs.
No bugs, no birds, no birds, eventually no humans. We are all interconnected.
We can thank Roundup-and industrial monoculture farming aka corporate farming. Anyone care to take a swim in the Gulf of Mexico near NOLA?
Or how about some nice Gulf shrimp brought to by Monsanto and BP Deepwater horizon.
The bigger all the corporations get, the worse the environment and life for everyday people gets.
Both democrats and republicans are caught in the sway of the corporate lobbyists and their masters whose only insatiable goal is MORE MONEY.
The damage to the earth and its sentient beings does not matter. The Earth is reeling from the human beings in the last 100 years.
17
@Harman MOSELEY
I couldn’t agree with you more! It was a year or two ago that I made the same observation that there were no bugs on the windshields. When I was a kid, our car was covered. It was an eerie realization. But the more horrifying part is that it’s probably not just the pesticides decimating insects, but perhaps the non-stop traffic on interstates.
I shudder to think of how many millions of animals die each day from being struck by a car.
6
I noticed this exact thing over the summer. I drove four hours across the plains in Kansas and didn’t have a single bug on my windshield. As a kid, I remember it being completely covered. We need leaders who will stand up to these corporate interests that are poisoning our air, water, and land.
4
Human overpopulation is the taproot of all ills. At 7.6 billion, we are 3 billion too many for the health and well-being of all other species.
At what point do religions and governments stop ignoring this fact and corresponding degradation of the planet - known and predicted since the 1960s?
11
Thanks to the authors for calling our attention to these shocking numbers. The Times has been doing an excellent job covering the insect collapse as well. Therefore it seems strange to me that it is not more enthusiastic about the Green New Deal, which, while not perfect, is the best outline in terms of goals and scope, to reverse the directions dismally declared here.
And I write as the former Director of Conservation of NJ Audubon Society, from 1989-2001, which gave me the chance to defend some of the best habitat protection programs in the nation: in chronological order of enactment: the Hackensack Meadowlands, the NJ Pinelands, the Freshwater Protection Act (the strongest in the nation, as was the Pinelands) and the Highlands Act. All have come under attack by the Republican Right, which is anti-government, anti-spending and anti-regulatory. It is a firm believer in all the economic illusions that will not get us out of the deep whole we have dug for Nature, and doesn't seem to be doing much for most of our citizens either.
These NJ programs held off the onslaught of two of the worlds most powerful real estate markets, NY and Phila, which saw habitats as purely real estate. These regional regulatory agencies brought "Social Democracy" to the land, and at their strongest, worked very well. Not anymore.
Every state needs to conduct a biological inventory along the lines of Marylands Bio Diversity Project - all volunteers. Many jobs of all types. CCC again
5
@William Neil
I agree about the seeming lack of enthusiasm for a Green New Deal. Maybe if the Democrats focused more on issues such as reported in this article, and the world we are leaving to the following generations, there would be the kind backlash that Rachel Carson inspired.
Yeap, and let's not forget the number of birds killed by wind turbines and solar panels.
Migratory birds face lots of dangers, mostly man made. I have had a wood thrush crash into a glass door in my house. Broke my heart as they have one of (if not the best) the best songs of any bird I've ever heard.
And I've had house cats that are house cats that have killed a blue jay and two cardinals. Again, heartbreaking. I don't know how the blue jay died. We kept the cat in the house at all times except after dark. We went to the store, came back and inside the house on the floor, a dead blue jay. The door to the outside was closed. I don't know how it happened, it's an epic locked room mystery.
So let's do what we can. Keep your cats inside. Don't know what we can do about them flying into buildings and other man made obstacles.
2
Yes, this is a habitat loss phenomenon, but on a much broader scale than people realize. ALL animals are affected, including humans.
My husband put up a bird feeder this spring, and we were dazzled by the number and variety of birds that visited. Within the space of about three weeks, they all had vanished. We no longer even see squirrels.
What could be different? It is still bird season. There is not more pollution in the air. We do not use insecticide. What did happen this summer is that two different utilities came through the neighborhood installing "smart" meters. These meters send signal to notify the utility of the use of the resource. Unlike a cell phone, the homeowner cannot move it or turn it off. It's just another wireless device, along with our phones, tablets, smart speakers, routers, 5G nodes, cell towers, that bathe us in an invisible sea of microwaves which have been demonstrated (see Martin Pall's work) to harm human and animal health. The smaller the animal, the greater the harm.
Let's recap: birds are drastically declining (this article), insects are drastically declining (nytimes Nov 2018), suicides and deaths of despair are drastically rising (cdc), mortality rate of human beings is rising (cdc), and fertility rates are dropping (cdc).
C'mon people, think.
5
@Barbara Lock
Birds have preferences. For that matter, different birds have a multitude of preferences. Songbirds are pickier than other birds and some, such as bluebirds, are fragile with definite "must haves" even in the best conditions.
Birds might gorge at a feeder and when another is placed elsewhere with food they prefer - they will move on, especially if another locale comes with better nesting opportunities, safer tall trees and shrubs + fewer humans, barking dogs, cars, etc...
We cannot, and will not, be diverted from our ruinous, over-consuming materialist lifestyles - the root cause of the many interconnected problems we currently face. Yes, we will tinker around the edges but the propulsive force of economic growth and personal consumption will continue unabated until well past any tipping point.
Realistically, though, I think bird loss will be the least of our problems during the coming decades. I expect we will all be focused on avoiding the many other cataclysmic challenges facing humankind.
1
Humans are the ultimate predator and destructive species on the planet. Unlike other creatures, humans are the ultimate consumer, waster and abuser of resources. In a way, humans are also the world's biggest parasite.
While climate plays a role here, humans with urban sprawl, destruction of native lands (mineral extraction, farming, raising livestock and development), chemicals, and more powerful artificial lighting have played a bigger role in this. Birds are not the only creatures dying out, so are amphibians and various species of bees.
Earth has gone through warm and cool cycles, and major die offs, in its history. All were naturally caused. Through that, many insects, spiders, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians survives. In the current case, humans have artificially changed the natural balance of the planet. They may have also set into motion another major die off. And, unlike previous die offs, it is happening very quickly.
It may be too late to stop what was set into motion. Global warming, flora and fauna die offs are for real. Unfortunately, human ignorance, and dominance, will not only consume the species, but the planet as well.
6
@Nick Metrowsky - Could not have expressed it any better myself. Spot on analysis!
Tragic news but sadly not surprising. The hollowing out of birdlife along with the rapid crash of insect life bodes ill for the world. Sadder still is that the new normal for younger people is a world lightly peppered with birds and insects. Whereas, older generations can at least call on earlier memories and remember what used to be. I wonder how long it will be before it's all effectively gone.
5
I think that there are three roots to these ecological problems that include extinctions and climate change:
1. Humans are unwilling to face and accept death. This is even more the case with the waning of religion and spirituality. Many people think this is all there is and they hold on and never let go. This has created an exploding healthcare industry and organizations like the WHO telling us that now even skipping the flu shot is an unacceptable risk for our species.
2. Humans want to eat as much they want, when they want. We want bananas and food in the winter that grows in the summer, etc.. Many people don't even know what food is in season, because it is available all the time. To achieve this miracle, food travels thousands of miles. Vegetarians listen up: your veggies have their own carbon footprint! We use tons of pesticides to artificially boost food production and this high food yield means cheap food and exponentially more humans. In turn, the pesticides are decimating the base layer of the food chain.
3. Humans essentially want to control everything. We think that our brain is smarter than the organic system to which we are a small part. We insert ourselves no matter the situation. We fight forest fires, we build bridges to remote islands, and eventually, we will be able to make men carry fetuses to full term, I'm sure of it.
So there we have it. The whole problem.
We are doomed.
3
i live in an area of ancient geese migration. 2x a year they used to come en masse to the once large lake. the sound was deafening when they would come in from the ocean to rest and feed. now we just get a trickle. this is not good...
4
This is heart-breaking. I weep for our grandchildren.
5
My cat is indoors only to protect endemic bird populations. I urge cat owners to consider keeping their cats indoors, even if it is a gradual limitation of time outdoors, to help rein-in the predation on wild bird populations. The choices that cat owners make can have a significant impact upon the dramatic decline of song birds.
352
@Concerned Citizen same logic that people use to say we can't do anything about climate change. Do your part and maybe something will happen. Too many say they can't possibly have an impact on the world. If we could time travel, we'd be terrified that something as minor as stepping on a bug could change history in major ways. Consider that when considering what small steps you can take now that may have changes you cannot imagine in the far future.
32
@Francesca My cats don't take birds, they only take mice. But I knew of one cat that was impressive. I was on guard duty in Germany in the 80s, and a cat hung around the guard shack where I stayed warm. Also around the guard shack were hundreds of sparrows, which must have been there because of the nearby Imbiss (snack stand). I let the cat in to keep warm one night and when I was getting ready to leave I jokingly pointed to the sparrows and said "Kill." And it immediately started killing. Within a few minutes there were dozens of dead sparrows there. I named the cat Archaeopteryx, for an extinct bird.
5
@Francesca, thank you for drawing attention to this issue. Domestic cats are a non-native species who do enormous harm to birds in North America. Keeping cats indoors can make a huge difference:
https://www.audubon.org/news/cat-owners-turn-blind-eye-pets-violence
31
This was written by one of my cats:
"It is not our fault that many bird and other small animal populations are in decline. Blaming us for this catastrophe is hypocritical. Before doing so, look in the mirror. Making us the scapegoats for your actions, and for the inevitable effect of your mindless population growth rate, will not solve any problems. You are the ones who are driving polar bears, pikas, whales, most of my large feline cousins and many more species to extinction. You are the ones that caused the extinction of many large mammals in North America when you invaded that continent 15,000 years ago. You are the ones that caused the extinction of the moa, the dodo, the Tasmanian tiger, the passenger pigeon. You are the ones who exterminated grizzly bears, wolves and buffalo throughout most of the American West.
I also want you to understand that each of us is a sentient individual, just as you. We are able to understand other beings intentions, suffer pain and fear, and feel joy and contentment. No matter what your cognitive scientists and philosophers tell you, that makes us sentient, just as you. We have the same right that you do to live happy lives free of fear, hunger and pain. You are the only species that kills for the sake of killing. If we kill it is only because we are hungry, and because we evolved to be ultra-specialized carnivores, unable to digest anything but meat. We have neither malice nor cruelty. Perhaps we are better people than you are…
11
@Ajax I saw an outside doormat the other day with this writing on it; 'people tolerated cats welcome'
1
@Ajax "This was written by one of my cats"....
In fact, cats will kill even when they are well fed and not hungry. Research shows that feeding feral cats does nothing to reduce the rate that cats kill birds and small mammals. Wild animals generally don’t kill unless they need food. Killing requires energy expenditure and is therefore costly unless there is some benefit associated with it, such as gaining food, a mate, or territory. If wild animals killed for pleasure, they would reduce their food supply and ultimately reduce their own numbers. This is not true of pet cats that roam outside or feral cats that are fed by humans. Their numbers can continue to expand even as they wipe out their prey.
1
You lost The Average American at "what's needed is a societal shift".
9
@Lowell H
The average American is a grave danger to himself and everyone else.
4
I think this article is a comprehensive analysis of this sad status. I would only add that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has also indicated that it is highly likely that two things which are difficult to quantify contribute the most losses to bird populations:
Habitat loss, which is addressed here, but not being to quantify ALL the small incremental ways, like suburban developments eliminating yards to place houses "cheek by jowl". Then,
Zoonotic diseases like avian flu and deaths no one can ever count. Diseases will be exacerbated by many of the other causes. To quote the USF&W:
" Other common human-caused and natural threats to birds that are known, but not listed below include various entanglement and entrapment threats (e.g., open pipes and nets); predation by other animals besides cats, including humans (e.g., poaching); weather events; starvation; and disease." Here's the USF&W link
https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds.php
2
How many more “dire” warnings do we need!
The novelist, Jonathan Franzen, got it right: “The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it.”
7
What definition of bird 'species' was used ?
https://www.audubon.org/news/new-study-doubles-worlds-number-bird-species-redefining-species
"New Study Doubles the World’s Number of Bird Species By Redefining 'Species' "
"A modified definition of 'species' suggests there are nearly 20,000 different kinds of birds, but the model is controversial and difficult to apply to conservation."
1
So the descendants of dinosaurs are going extinct as well. And this time the asteroid is us.
282
When it comes to flora and fauna the world is a very different place than the one I grew up in. And it's not just my imagination.
On the bright side I've seen a number of monarch butterflies on Cape Cod this year.
4
This is the proverbial canary in a coal-mine, except in this case the coal-mine is the earth.
If all these species are facing extinction due to the damaged environment, can humans reasonably expect to survive? If so, how? And would it be a world worth living in?
176
@Dan88
In my lifetime the population of the US has more than doubled. The planets population has more than tripled. It goes up by over 80 million per year. It defies common sense, logic and physics that people think we can continue to do this and nothing will change. A planet stuffed to over flowing with people, will by necessity, have less of most other species- besides those we grow to eat (domestic animals, mono crops) or can't get rid of (flies, rats etc). Ed abbey predicted that nothing that is wild or beautiful or free will survive the coming tsunami of humans. Looks like he was right.
16
Humans, like cockroaches, can survive anything.
1
@Stephanie Wood
They could survive when they could return to hunting and gathering when their various societies collapsed. But we are destroying the natural world, so what will we have to return to?
2
This doesn't surprise me at all. As a child growing up on Long Island in the 70's, I remember the birds' chirping being almost deafening in the mornings, especially in spring. This is definitely not the case anymore. On a recent visit to relatively rural Martha's Vineyard, I noticed one morning just after dawn that I could only hear one or 2 birds chirping even though I was in the middle of a wooded area near a large marshy area. That, and the fact that there weren't many mosquitoes, flies, bees (or even moths and japanese beetles banging against the window screens at night) made me think "this is not normal - something has changed".
295
@Ned Richards
I have experienced this as well. I remember as a kid waking up in summertime to a chorus of birds outside my window. It was a cacophony. These days I rarely hear any, and I actively miss the sound. It feels like the world is going silent.
The change is palpable and it's scary to realize how dramatically bird populations have plummeted in only 30 or so years.
15
@CS The same is true in our yard. Fewer chipmunks and squirrels. Fewer birds and butterflies. And allergies like my husband and I have never had. Very scary.
11
@Ned Richards - Former Long Islander and Queens resident myself from the 70s.
I absolutely agree with your experience Ned. Nature seems to be in retreat in a significant way. Never ending land development, pollution, etc, etc is the reason. Bigger question is how do we correct our ways before its too late?
11
Why does the devastation of a fellow species need to be a risk to humans in order to get human attention? This is a brutal tragedy in its own right. We share the world with other creatures. They are our brothers and sisters and their well-being matters.
360
@Mark And waterfowl populations have rebounded only because of hunting. Apparently if there is no utilitarian value for mankind, a species is out of luck.
10
@Mark
Your words express exactly how I feel. When will we realize we are the caretakers of the earth and her creatures?
Thank you.
2
@Mark Thank you Mark, well said.
1
Anyone who's more than 50 and spends a lot of time outdoors is painfully aware of these avian losses, even in natural areas that have remained superficially unchanged. Almost everything we do contributes to these losses. In addition, even when birds are still present we cannot hear them because of ever-increasing air traffic. We gain convenience but are losing what matters most - beauty, diversity, calm and silence. I will not be too sorry to leave, but I fear for my grandchildren.
345
@Paul Adams
I live in a relatively remote area with a fair amount of wild or at least semi wild land around me. I spend ~ 75$/mo on bird feed. I've noticed fewer visitors to the feeders even here. We are losing the diversity of animals, especially birds, from the wild areas that we should be able to replenish the country from. Nothing exists in isolation. The big crowded cities and the development that this society needs and uses now affect everywhere all the time. We've made a bargain with the devil. We can grow 330 million Americans living our lifestyle, but there won't be much left for the other creatures who need the same resources.
13
"A study in Germany, for instance, reported a midsummer decline of 82 percent in the biomass of flying insects over the past quarter century."
We like our birds, but don't like the flying insects. Yet these can't be separated - the first law of ecology is "you can't do just one thing". You can't have birds, or a healthy ecosystem at all, without insects. So... The Crisis for Insects is a Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All. That revised headline could be expanded indefinitely.
Thank you to the authors and their organizations.
394
This disturbing new reveals the inadequacy of the Green New Deal, which puts human needs (jobs, economic equality, etc.) ahead of PLANETARY NEEDS. Only by focusing on the preservation and integrity of species, habitats and ecosystems will we be able to assure the fulfillment of human needs. This simple fact is studiously ignored (as is the overpopulation crisis in Africa,, the middle east and parts of Asia). Without putting biodiversity and planetary ecosystems first our efforts to combat climate change will be nothing but a waste of money and a loss of valuable time. Earth First should be our motto, and then human survival will be assured.
34
@Lorna Salzman
no reason the two have to be independent of the other...
14
@Lorna Salzman
Our environmental problems are the direct result of our economic system, which rests on technological innovation and mass production. To save the environment, we need to change our economic system and our lifestyles. To do this will create enormous economic and social disruption. This is exactly why a Global Green New Deal is essential. If we are going to save the environment, we are going to need to transform our economy, and that's going to require the kinds of economic and social interventions recommended in the GGND. These things are inter-related.
15
As well as the apples, wild bird seed, and bowls of water I leave on my section, the birds also peck out worms from the natural organic grown grass on my property. If you spray on your property then the birds can't eat anything, as wind spray drift goes on everything else.
5
@CK
There are organic herbicides and pesticides that are compatible with insects and wildlife, but consumers generally do not find them at the big box or hardware stores. We went total organic landscape maintenance several years ago but had to find those organic products online and do the work ourselves throughout the year instead of hiring a company. We always had and wanted to keep our yard full of tiny spring peepers, grass frogs and skints, as well as helper spiders that naturally belonged there more than humans and also naturally helped balance the environment.
The prior owners of our home did little to the house and instead spent time and money on the landscaping to compensate. We renovated the home, while keeping all that lovely wildlife-friendly landscaping but it did take a lot of effort and research to do both as holistically, ethically, organically and non-invasively as possible.
2
I am sitting on the porch of a secluded lake house in The Berkshires area of Massachusetts. Other than the occasional crow, a pair of bald eagles who soar above the water and a barred owl who awoke me the other night, I have not seen or heard another bird for the last week.
We'll have no one to blame when the current feedback loop continues to accelerate and brings down more destruction on our natural systems. Indeed, it seems likely that we've already exceeded the tipping point.
5
@Clyde Late September the birds are not making a lot of noise. No one expects a dawn chorus in September. Breeding is over. Most migrants are gone. Great time to get up to a high ridge and look for migrating raptors. Early morning look for migrating warblers in the tree tops.
2
This article should have included info about Bird-Safe window glass and add-on window accessories that prevent or greatly reduce bird deaths from flying into window glass. In Holland, all new high-rise buildings must use bird-safe windows made with microscopic wires embedded in it that are invisible to the human eye but that birds can see do not so the birds do not fly into the glass when it's reflecting the sky. Windows in buildings of all heights, including single family homes, kill millions of birds a year. The latest estimate is 600,000 birds dead per year in North America from crashing into windows. It's time that building codes require bird-safe glass in all new construction. And all of us can make our windows bird-safe, too. Take action now!
11
North American insects have declined 80%. Starfish and other echinoderms in North American waters had massive die-offs over the last 5 years. Salmon are down to 2-5% of historic numbers. Now the birds are vanishing and Orcas are starving. CO2 is rising rapidly and the earth is warming. The parallels with what is known of the end-Permian mass extinction are alarming. At that time 95% of all species and all life died and it took 10 million years to recover. It may already be too late this time.
21
@Hari Seldon
It pretty much is too late. Wait until tundra and permafrost starts to melt. The release of methane will be, well, world changing.
Where are all the psychohistorians when you need them?
1
At this point, any politician who denies climate change is performing a criminal act, placing our country (and the world) at great risk. How much more evidence do we need?
17
@Lisa Kelly
'Twould seem all the evidence in the world isn't enough for politicians, and the people who elect them, to drastically change the course of events.
It begs the question "Why not?"
1
This is what happens when one species dominates to the point of exceeding the carrying capacity of their environment. It happened to the Kaibob deer in the Grand Canyon. FDR created the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve, and banned all hunting and try to exterminate all the predators. The deer population exploded, devastated their environment, then starved.
We have exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet. The future is not looking good.
The world population has doubled in my lifetime. Nature has a way of forcing populations to manageable levels. Unfortunately, it will be our children that will pay the price.
16
@Walrus Carpenter
Not just our children--ourselves, too. Many are already paying the price (deaths in hurricanes, heatwaves, etc.).
1
@Walrus Carpenter People really don't need "children" plural at this juncture.
Oft times I muse that the planet would be better off if accelerated our own destruction. Then all these many species that contribute to the complex ecosystem that we continue to ignore might have a fighting chance of survival.
4
@Robin
The acceleration of our own destruction will hasten the destruction of all complex life forms.
We have no right to do that.
We have to slow the destruction and heal,
not step on the gas.
5
@Robin
Fear not. Terra will survive the human race.
If only we could as well, how splendid that would be.
1
We have had 9 presidents since 1970 and there is enough blame to go around with individuals who contributed adversely to our environment and the carbon foot print. In addition, while teaching veterinary virology I was quite astonished to find the number of viruses are around which can decimate the bird population. Migratory birds are a bug reason how bird viruses are spread across continents. Ornithologists should monitor bird infections around the world and stem the loss of birds to infections.
I was happy to see the grey pigeon population near my birth place during the same period still quite high and thriving. Having local care takers is possibly a factor. The image of a flock of pretty red winged blackbirds over Long Island, NY is quite nice. I hope the world makes a concerted effort to ensure that the bird population is restored to 1970 levels.
3
"What makes this study particularly compelling is the trustworthiness of the data." - Meaning a distinction from other nature studies?
The birders and scientists have kept detailed records for many years.
8
@Bartolo
and don't forget museum collections as well with a physical record that can be tested for genetics, pesticide exposure, plus lots of other aspects.
your local college and university stores these with collection dates and natural histories.
2
In fact, bird watchers flock to places like Cape May to record the migrations.
Without reading any of the comments, I know that a large number of them are going to blame cats. Don't bother. What is killing the birds are people. One example: destruction of beach due to development and the over harvesting of horseshoe crabs is cause the decimation of shore birds such as the red knot (they eat the horseshoe crab eggs). The birds are starving to death. The introduced species such as the startling and the house wren have push native songbirds to the brink. And the changing climate is cause havoc everywhere. Don't blame cats.
6
@sjs. And by the way, there was a large die-off of horseshoe crabs this summer, too.
5
@sjs
If you are saying that, given half a chance, a cat will not jump a bird, you don't know cats.
I do agree that we must stop the loss of habitats before we begin arresting cats for bird murder.
1
@Jeffry Oliver
I've adopted strays and been adopted by ferals for most of my life. For the past couple of decades, all of mine became indoor-only in order to keep them safe from diseases, hideous cat-hating humans, cars, predatory dogs that hideous humans let run loose.
Until then, I never had one outdoor cat that was a birder. Squirrel and rodent hunters, yes, but with few successes.
5
As Aldo Léopold wrote: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
21
I find that habitat restoration is one of the the most ignored aspects of fighting climate change. There are constant arguments about the economic effects of reducing carbon emissions but how could anyone disagree with something so simple as replanting a forest after cutting it down (not just trees but multiple species). I can take as long as 1000 years for a forest to regrow naturally, but this can be done in a fraction of that time with newer techniques. According to the nature Conservancy, natural climate solutions can help us meet up to 40% of our carbon reduction goals. If this helps restore habitat for birds and other animals, so much the better.
11
Whether the monocrop is corn, soybeans, or the American lawn, extraordinary amounts of land are blanketed in pesticides that poison surrounding natural areas. As a society, we need to say no to our current level of pesticide use, including a ban on neonicotinoids, which decimate insects and the birds that feed on them.
My home state of Maryland banned neonicotinoids for consumer use earlier this year, and anecdotally, the results have been spectacular. There were butterflies all over the DC suburbs this summer. For several years prior to that, I saw only a handful per season. The birds also seem to be more numerous. And the local lawns don't look worse, although in my opinion, most lawn space should be allowed to grow in order to form pockets of habitat...
Beyond limiting pesticides, we ought to subsidize farmers for reserving more marginal land for wildlife. Protected areas should be added and expanded upon. Natural areas can and should become accessible to everyone in America.
A lot of recent habitat loss and plummeting wildlife numbers can be undone relatively easily if we demand it.
33
@Ted B
"...we ought to subsidize farmers for reserving more marginal land for wildlife."
We have and do through the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP. It's a federal program that gives landowners an annual per-acre payment to take environmentally sensitive farmland out of production.
The numbers of farmers and ranchers participating has varied, with more signing up when crop prices are low, but there is a minimum length of time before land can be taken out. It also involves more than just not using the land, with seeding native species as part.
The biggest problem, obviously, is when the CRP payments are way lower than the profit from crops on that same land.
2
When Rachael Carson wrote "Silent Spring" people woke up and demanded changes in chemicals and pesticides and thanks to her, we still have eagles and ospreys and other glories of the sky.
We are desperate for Rachel's rebirth. How do we force the powers that be to literally clean up their act?
Corporate farms have certainly done lasting damage to swaths of the nation's heartland and loss of trees and underbrush wipes out food and nesting habitat.
What a boon it would be if homes were surrounded by flowering plants, bushes and little hidey holes for birds instead of bluegrass lawns ala Victorian England.
20
Nothing new, but please keep reiterating it. From my observations here in Florida and in Southern Spain, the destruction of habitats and the indiscriminate use of pesticides, resulting in the destruction of insects and the poisoning of birds and amphibians, are the main reasons. Climate change is another factor.
11
I have memories, as a young child in the 1970s in North Carolina, every autumn there would appear overhead, a continuous river of millions of migrating birds. It would last for about two weeks, unbroken. Towards the end it would thin out with the stragglers. This memory has haunted me for the past dozen years or so. As if it were a dream. Anyone else remember this?
24
@Just Vote - We are living a nightmare. Once you know you can't consciously forget.
2
@Steve
I beg to differ. Our species excels at ignoring the thinks it knows.
1
What I don't see mentioned are the impacts of road salt. Birds that forage on the side of roads, as well as near any hard surfaces in the city treated with salt are likely to die by ingesting as little as one crystal of road salt. Please add it to the list of human-created hazards and encourage maintenance staff and residents to reduce the environmental impacts of salt by becoming certified in best winter maintenance practices (a common training program and state certification program in MN and NH, for example).
23
Pampio, Trumpee-oh.
IDIOTS!
They won't do a damned thing about it, either. Global warming is inching towards global boiling. And those God-given, wedges in the sky that have left anyone with a love of mother earth in awe since mankind first crawled from beneath a rock.
Don't let this happen! Toss the Irans and the Crown Princes and the "bleep" lickers like Pompeo and duh Donald and Pompous-ises into the landfills and bury them deep beneath the residue of lust for oil and money.
Let Trump have all the greenbacks he can use in his gold plated toilet but
KEEP
THE
BIRDS!
and preserve the sight of their flight so our children can learn what beauty and peace truly is. Hope! for Christ's sake! Save the Birds at any cost. Save beauty, save awe, save what God has given us all.
And flush Trump down something, anything...
BUT SAVE THE BIRDS AND GOD'S VISION FOR ALL LIVING CREATURES.
11
All government buildings should be bird safe. I used to pass a newly constructed shiny glassed federal government building in the early morning on my way to work and there were all kinds of dead migratory birds on the sidewalk. I looked one up and it was relatively uncommon. It was a large beautiful, water bird, and from what I remember, it was on its way from the Chesapeake Bay to California. I cannot remember the name. It did not even make it out of the state. I felt so ill and I still do.
A bipartisan issue if I have ever seen one, The Bird-Safe Buildings Act would do what I speak of. The bill just sits collecting dust and has a 4% chance of passing according to govtrack.
Municipalities and the Feds should at least participate in Lights Out. City lights cause birds to become disoriented and confused, flying into buildings and becoming prone to predators. Report any birds you find, dead or alive. When I go back to NYC, I always wonder how these tall condo buildings can participate in Lights Out. Oh, I guess they can't. They're condos. Maybe it's good that so many of them remain unsold. Every little flick of the switch helps.
28
This continent was, not too long ago, remarked upon as the Land of Plenty.
There is a reason that tribal nations enjoyed towering forests, and rivers teeming with fish, and the soil-and-soul-building wonder of massive flocks of birds.
Such bounty was assured and enabled by a conscious, ingrained and constant effort to view the Animal and Plant worlds as Elder Brothers, with humanity the Little Brothers. We are not necessary, and in fact are a clear danger unless trained into humility.
In the Anishinaabek (Great Lakes indigenous) language:
Dabasendiziwin:
To think lower of oneself in relation to all that sustains us. Commonly referred to as Humility.
Dabas = low or lower
End = pertaining to thought
Izi = state or condition
Win = a way it is done
Even after the clear cuts and constant "development," the humble heart aches in loss and love.
12
These kinds of indicators of the crisis we are in have been showing up for decades now. How many hundreds of signs like these do we need before we all WAKE UP???
That means each and every one of us cutting down our use of everything. We need a complete shift in consciousness.
16
@Barbara
Yes. I was in a store tonight--not Walmart, but similar--and I couldn't help but think how much rubbish filled the shelves (and would soon fill our landfills). So much stuff is created that we absolutely do not need, and every single item uses up our resources.
If the expression “a rare bird” ever becomes more than a figure of speech, and the jungles and the forests, and the fields and the wetlands go silent, humanity is doomed.
7
So, when are humans going to disappear in the same ratios?
5
@iowan. When the air is too hot to breath, the oceans are too acidified for fish to procreate and survive, and when the scarcity that comes with that will lead to Mad Max-like scenarios. I take heart in the real story of what has happened at Chernobyl. The first several generations of animals suffered from radiation poisoning and showed weird abnormalities, but now they are radiation-free and ecological balance has been restored, because the area is almost human-free. Homo so-called sapiens will die in great numbers, and our effects on the planet will be mitigated or lead to new, adaptive, life forms. That presumes, of course, that AI doesn't achieve the singularity first and, in its greater wisdom, decide to get rid of the pests that are human beings.
7
People, rats and mice are the biggest threat to birds. Lots fly into vehicle windscreens and house windows and die. Lots of birds fall victims to bird smugglers no different to people traffickers, so lets call them bird traffickers, as stuffed illegal birds cost big bucks in the illegal bird trafficking trade.
Oh! and let me guess! Who in the USA doesn't know some person with a gun who likes to shoot birds in their backyard or at school or in the park or where ever birds are found in the USA. How many guns are there in the USA? Ask yourself that question.
Pesticides are also a problem as it doesn't land where it is sprayed and can drift onto areas where the birds drink. I put bowls of water all around my property for birds and leave the apples on the trees so they can eat them in winter. The eat the inside of the apples on the tree and just leave the skin.
9
Canary in the coal mine?
6
We can stop blaming cats now.
5
@freepress
I don' think so. Outdoor cats are a major source of bird death. People think attaching a bell to the collar helps- it doesn't. I found my neighbor's cats collar in my backyard- without the attached cat!
6
Cats are part of the world, just as birds are. Too many humans is The Problem.
8
@Lowell H Cats are not part of the natural world in North America. Rather, cats are an invasive species no different from the Ash Borer or Kudzu.
Human impact should be curtailed by all means. In North America, that includes curtailing cats.
3
Meanwhile,Trump says we need to pollute more, open more public land for development, etc. In some ways he is the perfect President for our species at this time: total Nihilism, the very picture of the equivalence between power and destructiveness, the mirror for us of what it looks like to find ecstasy in ruining all that there is. King Midas sitting there, starving, alone in a golden world. If I were a religious person, I’d call this satanic.
11
Human overpopulation is the Only environmental problem, underlying all others. We are destroying the planet but no politician dares mention the root problem - look at the uproar when Bernie discussed it briefly last week. Talk about population control and the left calls you a racist while the right calls you a baby killer. A well fed population of any animal will increase exponentially until the food runs out; then it collapses abruptly. Due to its explosive growth, we will see this first in Africa, then other drier parts of the world. It will be very ugly.
25
The number one cause of biodiversity loss is animal agriculture.
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/food/
Boycott cruelty. Eat plants.
18
I'm sure this is nothing that a dose of climate change, air and water pollution, oil exploration and extraction and a shrinking of our protected lands can't fix. If those fail we can always build a wall around the birds.
5
This is very sad news.
I'm not sure this is just a climate change issue. Yes, climate change is real and we should do something about it, but with close to 8 Billion people (and expanding) maybe there are just to many humans on the planet and this is just the natural course of a population depleting its resources...
I think the planet is neutral about what lives on its surface and will keep spinning regardless of what life forms inhabit it.
16
While these birds and their habitats are disappearing, Newsom and the CA legislators are demanding more and more construction.
Definition of insanity. Newsom is becoming more Trumpian every day.
3
@Medea Construction in already developed urban areas as opposed to building sprawl on previously undeveloped land is one of the solutions to this mess.
3
Every single day a new calculation, a new context, indicting what we are all doing, right this minute, to commit mass murder of a magnitude never before seen on this planet.
(Mind you, this is murder, not natural ebb and flow of species dominance, we have the ability to control what we do)
I believe most people, when individually faced with the consequences of their choices, in this regard, knowing the damage being done, knowing the truly innocent lives destroyed, would feel the guilt and shame that accompanies moral failure, and would respond in a way that allows them to self correct.
As group, organized into the competitive, ridiculously selfish community of greed and arrogance, we seem to make the wrong choice, for the wrong reason, every time.
We should understand that the world and everything living in it is the source of our "rights". As we kill it, we are killing ourselves, and all the overwrought systems we have constructed to give us the false impression we are safe, and nourishing our best selves.
I don't care about your rules, or your wars, or your idea of justice, or the precious nature of your obscure and self described "history". There is no justice as long as we believe we own this world. There is no history without a future. There is no humanity without responsibility, and there are no choices without consequences.
11
I am not sure that the quality of public education in the US can support voters who even understand the big picture. They are not dumb, but they sure do not value education and likewise do not have quality education available. Every decade, the textbooks in the US are dumbed down, the parents expect less, and the teachers act accordingly. High school english, chemistry, physics languages, math and biology are not changing fast enough to warrant new textbooks. By keeping the old ones, the disadvantage of a few outdated facts is outweighed by preventing the dumbing down of the content and challenge. Saves money too. Sorry Americans, stop slacking or you will not understand how your natural and your economic world is being taken from you, with your naive voting approval.
4
The role of outdoor cats should not be ignored.
24
@rab
Its such a small part of the problem, but people are obsessed with it
6
Yes, it should,?as it merely muddies the waters. Owls and hawks routinely kill and eat kittens. Dogs routinely kill cats, as do humans. Human behaviors destroying our environment are the issue here, but it's always simpler to blame something else.
5
@rab Some of the figures given by various organizations about how many birds are killed by each cat / year are patently absurd. I have kept my two current cats inside to do my part, but the idea that each cat kills 3000 birds a year is risible. Habitat loss and pesticides are far more of a problem. It will be interesting to see whether rodents will now become a problem with more cats indoors. As noted, in other comments other animals prey upon birds.
6
I'm expecting a Reagan-esque tweet from our Glorious Leader or his puppet, Mitch McConnell - "Once you've heard one meadowlark, you've heard them all." They just don't care.
And if, say, California puts strict protections in place, who's to say that Trump's Republican Guard, the EPA, won't over-ride it.
6
@JDStebley
I'd bet that the only bird Trump can name besides chicken is pigeon. He likes chicken 'cause he thinks they're all white...
And I'd bet he hates pigeons too since one vented on him while he was in New York city when he was a teenager.
It's kinda funny since he's got so much in common with the male pigeon.
The human species is fiendishly clever, and utterly lacking in wisdom.
32
More Silent Springs ahead.
Every day more and more bad news. Will we ever wake up?
15
The canary is falling from the sky--not the mine.
Yet Trump mandates more pollution.
15
You can bet that if anything is done to address the loss, it will be in the human's self-interest. Humans are responsible for the wretched state of the world and will most likely continue to be. The "me-first" mentality is killing the planet.
12
A truly sad testament to human's impact on the world. Our willful ignorance, selfishness, & short-sightedness has become a disease for the planet.
12
Say it again and say it louder. I'm afraid this is falling on deaf ears.
7
One day, Homo sapiens will be the subject of a similar report.
7
Someone really needs to mention air pollution. Apparently birds are much more sensitive than we are as the use of teflon cookware is OK for humans but will kill pet birds. Many zoos have tried using teflon coated light bulbs in bird cages with disastrous results.
Even DuPont the maker of teflon does not argue this point.
Given this what do our cars do to the bird population?
5
A great thing would be if the hunters who helped bring back the wildfowl populations would object loud and long to the recent change by the Trump administration to laws protecting the marshes, i.e., lowering the standards of what can be dumped legally into waterways. Maybe Trump & Co. will listen to you because they sure don't listen to scientists, conservationists and others assumed to be not voting for him.
21
Rats and stoats are the biggest killers of NZ birds. Maybe some feral cats but cats also keep down the rat and mice population. There are no mice where I live in the city because there is a large cat population and my cats don't chase birds as they are well fed. I also buy cat food and wild bird seed to feed all the birds on my section and both the cats and birds live together without the cats attacking them. Cats preference is for rats and mice that kill birds and climb trees and eat the eggs in the nest.
No mention whatsoever about the biggest threat to birds in this article and that is rats and mice that eat the nest eggs.
I just can't believe peoples bias towards cats when they keep down the rat and mice population in any area.
50
No! It’s been well-documented that cats kill billions of birds a year. This is a fact. Please don’t rely on your own observations or gut feelings about this. Predation by domestic cats is a major factor in bird deaths around the world. I love cats but would never own one. I hope many other cat lovers will face up to this FACT
77
@Mary
If you are talking about the study done in England, you should be aware there were many problems with that study. So, please, cite your sources so we can decide if it is a FACT
20
@Mary Lets just say that we agree to disagree. NZ has one of the largest cat populations in the world and we have an abundance of birds and bird song.
The thing we have less of, compared to the USA population, is people. And we also have Trusts and other creative ways the Department of Conservation goes about saving endangered species. Auctions to visit habitats etc - our government funding is very creative in NZ.
30
One thing those with cats can do right now is keep them inside. TI love them but they are merciless killers, even when well fed. The dawn chorus at my mother's house in nearby leafy suburbs disappeared years ago, thanks in part to pesticides and cats.
14
Stunning and profound call for healing our planet from our own arrogance and narcissistic ways of being. Thank you for this report and the awareness that we can turn this around with a concerted effort...
4
Shrinking habitat, and a landscape swimming in pesticides.
Man is killing the planet.
31
In addition to creating awareness of this crisis, the most effective and immediate measure is to vote Trump out of office. If the president does not believe facts and science, we must usher in new leaders who do.
16
In our manifold attempts to control and "improve" nature, we are killing it. Changes around the edges won't fix this. It's time to ban widespread agricultural use of insecticides, herbicides, and antibiotics. Will the big chemical companies be stricken? Probably. Whose survival do we value more? A planet with a biosphere that functions robustly enough to keep regenerating the clean water, air, and food that we humans need to survive? Or a bunch of chemical companies?
18
@Elizabeth
Interesting that you mention antibiotics. I have a different take on them. One of the things that is dooming the planet is health care, ironically. The median age at death for a woman in Canada today is 90--90!--and for a man, it's 84. This is possible not only because of plentiful food over the last decades, but also because of antibiotics, vaccines and other health measures that have vastly extended life. We failed to take into account that with that extension, we needed to rein in the population in other ways.
This news has been a long time coming. Indeed, I made the following plea in a 2003 paper published in Global Change Biology:
"The most recent climate change predictions indicate that the global mean temperature will continue to rise for at least the next 100 years. This change will continue to be most pronounced across the northern latitudes. Evidence is mounting that many Neotropical–Nearctic songbirds are already declining as a result of landscape changes such as habitat loss and fragmentation (Ro-
binson et al., 1995) and the lack of an adaptive response to climate change by migrating earlier in the spring may further stress already at-risk populations like the wood warblers of North America. This can only lead to disruptions in the trophic systems with which large-scale continental migration evolved. Future studies should seek to predict more accurately the ecological and even economic consequences of declining Neotropical migrant songbird populations, especially if climate change continues to alter the spring temperature pattern in the northern latitudes, and only by discovering, analyzing, and maintaining long-term phenological data can we expect to validate the predictions of climate change (Harrington et al., 1999; Root et al., 2003)."
Strode, P. K. 2003. Implications of climate change for North American wood warblers (Parulidae). Global Change Biology 9:1137-1144.
9
Brave New World indeed! The conversations parents should be having with their children today about "the birds and the bees" is ominously different than the ones our parents had with us.
20
Bees, frogs, birds, fish, et al. all disappearing. Ice, top soil , fresh water all going away. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. The first domino has been knocked down and the rest are collapsing and gathering speed. This is what the beginning of extinction level event looks like. We don't have 10-20 years. It's already begun, and it's probably too late. And with conservative people and governments around the world willing to trade off all life for a fast buck we're doomed. Unless we're willing to go to war with them. In the most literal sense.
20
The bottom line here is to find a happy medium where both humans and the bird/insect can live.
You don't want a situation where people are forced to live in ghettos whereas birds/insects have free rule over the earth.
Likewise, you want to make sure you are giving birds/insects a fighting chance to survive with habitat protection, environmental controls etc.
If you cater to the extremes you make both humans and/or animals suffer alike.
1
@Paul "You don't want a situation where people are forced to live in ghettos whereas birds/insects have free rule over the earth."
What are you talking about? Who exactly is proposing this?
10
@Paul We are WAY BEYOND wildlife (birds and insects included) ever having "free rule" over the earth. Humans have destroyed 83% of wild mammals for example. The "extreme" situation is already here--very little is left of our natural world and most protected areas are in areas with little biodiversity.
13
@Wm. Blake-Thank you for your reply. I am talking in theory. What I am saying is stay away from the extremists who usually get the squeaky oil ie the extreme left ie we most go back to the way we were in the 1800s and stop modern progress or the extreme right who ie drill, drill, drill without regard to environment or animals.
1
How do the authors reccommend dealing with diseases like Eastern Equine Encephalitis(EEE) while protecting the environment that birds need to thrive? Spraying "for" mosquitoes has been used in a much larger area than normal in Massachusetts this summer.
We should be finding the least damaging ways to fight diseases like EEE. Because the ways that cost the least money in the moment, are the most destructive of the ecosystem. For EEE, we should treat wetlands with Bacillus Thuringensis, a bacterium that harms only mosquito larvae. And put sufficient government funding into developing vaccines, instead of relying on blanket spraying of wildlife-killing insecticides. Instead of leaving vaccine development to the profit-oriented "free" market and Big Pharma. j
4
@Bam Boozler
mosquito fish in the places where mosquitoes breed can help to lower spraying while controlling mosquitoes.
Does your county have a vector control agency? If so, then contact them and ask how much they spend on vector control.
1
Wind is a good source of electricity, but windmills do kill birds and ought not to be immune from oversight.
2
@Jseast There are many new wind turbine designs that do not have bird-killing blades--we should expect progress in this area. They are not currently immune from environmental regulation, although Trump has severely diminished wildlife protection through changes to the Endangered Species Act, THE MOST important regulation protecting wildlife and their habitat in our country.
5
You're thinking of the oler windmill design, that was small with fast-moving blades that birds can't see. The new giant wind turbines with blades that move much more slowly have dramatically reduced bird deaths. Please look it up.
8
I am a bird lover and this breaks my heart. Something else about this article, though, confuses me. Why are there no female red-winged blackbirds in the accompanying photograph? Females are entirely brown. It's as if the picture is a photo-shopped stock shot by someone who doesn't know males and females of this species look different. It seems that the person who selected the photo to go with the story also doesn't know this (and it's not very specialized knowledge). It may be another indication of how out of touch we are with other species.
2
@Asher Taite Male red-winged blackbirds migrate together and before the females, who arrive later. We always have great numbers of males at our feeders long before the females show up in the spring.
9
@Asher Taite Male red-winged blackbirds arrive at the breeding grounds first to establish their territories, which is likely when this photo was taken. Females arrive after the temperatures warm a bit and more invertebrate food is available for producing eggs and young. I've been at huge marshes when the waves of females arrive and it is spectacular.
4
@Beth Thank you Beth and Percy for clarifying! It appears that I am the one who is out of touch. But good to learn something new about our wonderful bird neighbors.
Every spring like clockwork trucks with some version of the word Green roll out to the suburbs to spray with all manner of chemicals. Farmers do this on a much larger scale. More and more open space is being consumed in building. Along the freeways, once open spaces are now covered in more lanes for more cars. When will the madness stop? I don't know. I hope and pray soon. But one thing is certain - the madness will stop. Whether we are around to see it is up to us.
41
@Steve Find out what your municipality is using, or allowing private owners to use, and get involved locally in stopping the use of these chemicals. We all need to act locally as much as globally.
I've been a birdwatcher for a bit over 50 years now, having started as a young child of about 6 or 7. I don't birdwatch as regularly or as intensely as I did in my 20s and 30s, but anytime I am outdoors I notice birds and birdsong. While I've noticed declines for decades in less common migratory birds, I've recently grown alarmed at what appears to be precipitous declines in the common resident species that live in my suburban backyard—birds such as black-capped chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, and robins. The most noticeable change for me is the lack of birdsong in the spring. I know this research says vireos are increasing, but this spring I was shocked at how rarely I heard red-eyed vireos—birds that are often difficult to see but are abundant and sing incessantly all summer. I actually am heartsick. I don't have rigorous data, but my casual observations tell me that we are already undergoing a major environmental catastrophe that I doubt people without experience observing birds similar to mine would even notice.
75
@617to416 I agree. We barely had any goldfinches this year and we usually have them in abundance. Black-capped chickadees are sparse as well. That being said, we were fortunate to have many nesting cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks and woodpeckers this year. But the decline is definitely noticeable on the whole.
11
@617to416
I'm not a birdwatcher and I've noticed it. I really noticed it last fall when there just didn't seem to be as many birds migrating.
9
@Beth
Here, the cardinals and woodpeckers seem down too. (The cardinals especially—I usually can count 4 or 5 singing from my patio; this year it was 2 or 3.) I did however see a few more rose-breasted grosbeaks on walks this year too. Not huge numbers, but maybe a few more than usual.
I am particularly alarmed at the almost complete absence of chickadees. This is odd as they usually are everywhere. Goldfinches, house finches, and even house sparrows are down too.
9
I have a number of bird feeders on my deck and in the pine trees surrounding my house. This year I noticed that the feeders had to be refilled less frequently and that the birds were arriving later. The crow numbers seem the same but magpie population seems less. The Blue Jays have almost disappeared. This opinion piece is a counter to the other piece on bringing children into a world threatened by climate change. I use to lunch in Boulder CO with a top climate scientist who was generally a positive voice. However, he did say if we didn't get started on reducing our footprint that we could unknowingly hit a tipping point that would decimate civilization. This was 20 years ago and we have done virtually nothing. I am frightened for my grandchildren.
54
This is literally the Canary in the coal mine of Climate Change.
The window of opportunity to effectively mitigate Climate Change is rapidly disappearing.
The remaining 2020 Democratic Candidates will try to cut & paste portions of Governor Jay Inslee’s comprehensive & actionable Climate Change Mitigation Plan.
We must go with the real deal.
The winning Democratic Party 2020 Ticket: Warren (save the economy) + Inslee (save the planet)! W+IN 2020!
38
Too little, too late. This concern should have been directed decades ago at the disappearance undeveloped land which kills off insects and plants.
11
@Mark Defeatism is the flip side of denial. It is never too late.
1
This defeatist attitude in no way helps. Please get active and join us in doing everything you can to demand and ensure we turn the ship as fast as we can, save everything we can save.
And the bigger birds like vultures, eagles, ravens and such are going to be severely impacted by covering the mid-continent with windmills, as all good progressives who don't have to live around the wind towers are promoting. It is another reason nuclear power should be considered as the best carbon free alternative.
7
@Fly Humans can't be trusted with nuclear power, as has been shown by several nuclear accidents. In addition, where does all that nuclear waste go? It's not "clean" by any stretch of the imagination.
5
@Flyover Bird-friendly wind turbines (not "windmills") are being developed; see https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2018/how-new-technology-making-wind-farms-safer-birds
There is another consideration--mortality at wind turbines may actually not appreciably affect most bird populations. Unless you know the factors that are limiting to a species' population, you can't assume that any single cause of mortality is causing the decline of a species. You can be a progressive bird lover and support the development of bird-friendly wind power.
3
What about solar?
This isn't just about birds, but another warning about the impacts of human activity on all species, including our own. While bird populations have plummeted over the last 50 years, the population of humans has doubled, with attendant impacts on other species. Bird loss is a "canary in the mine" or in this case, the earth.
27
My daughter Ruby graduated from UConn last June and she has already spent 2 summers working with terns on Great Gull Island in LI and 2 summers working with mountain bird species in Oregon. She has just now gone down to Georgia to work on studying bobwhite quail. She makes bare survival wages and yet will do more for the planet and the future than nearly all famous, wealthy athletes. She and all the others trying to save us from ourselves are almost ghosts in our society. Entertainers and do nothing politicians accumulate fame and power and riches. Perhaps the NYTimes and other media outlets can invest more coverage on the scientists and citizen science efforts going on all around us, unseen and unheard.
243
@Ed Smith I switched from academic biology to conservation biology when I was fifty years old, and had four kids. I was paid $20,000/year by one of the world's foremost conservation organizations. That is how much we value the natural world.
70
@Ed Smith Please thank your daughter for me, and my granddaughters. Her work is appreciated.
28
The so-called 'anthropocene' is a misleading and inappropriate term and should be abolished from any self-respecting scientific discourse.
Natural systems have been profoundly altered by human civilization, but in no way does this imply a new geological epoch.
Human impact is more akin to that of an asteroid strike -- causing rapid decompensation of multiple systems and broad-based trophic collapses across ecosystems.
The impact is largely confined to the post-WWII era -- approximately 75 years, or arguably the past century if one assumes the two wars formed a continuum.
In no way is this a meaningful geological timeframe, and the very idea that these impacts can be sustained on any geologically meaningful timescale is laughable.
10
@Mikhail
Some geologists point out that humans are changing the earth's air, water, and soils (including both the highest and deepest places on the planet).
That's why they want to call it the Anthropocene.
"They argue for “Anthropocene”—from anthropo, for “man,” and cene, for “new”—because human-kind has caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts." https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-...
"According to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the professional organization in charge of defining Earth’s time scale, we are officially in the Holocene (“entirely recent”) epoch, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age."
Nearly twelve thousand years ago is when the Holocene started and that's not a great period of time either.
4
@Mikhail Point taken, but the term has value simply by concisely communicating the fact that humans are impacting the planet in such profound ways.
4
@Mikhail
Isn't it an asteroid strike that defines the K-T boundary?
2
I'm grateful to these authors for speaking out about these results, grateful as I silently weep at work. Personally I'm refraining from procreation, actively supporting the transition to renewable energy, trying to support policy and legislation to save the precious ecosystems on which we too depend, and yet, and yet. The near constant updates on faltering and dying species, alarmingly escalating climate disruptions, and an administration moving swiftly in the wrong direction, solicit grief and disbelief. Where is leadership? What can we do when our representatives are either too coward or too beholden to lobbyists and industry to act in the interest of the people? When will we say, Enough?
35
@Joshi
We will say "enough" tomorrow. SunriseMovement.org
2
Boy, do I feel blessed. I live on a little more than half an acre in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
In the last three days, I've been able to enjoy watching a mother deer and two fawns grazing in our back yard. Three wild turkeys appeared in the front yard at dusk. Among some of the other critters who show up on a regular basis: squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays (maybe they all moved to Michigan, since they are EVERYWHERE), cardinals, big black crows, foxes, red-headed woodpeckers, hawks, ducks, geese and woodchucks.
A month ago, while driving to my gym, a noticed a huge dark shadow out the corner of my eye. It was a great blue heron, and it was massive. It also rose and spread its ginormous wings as it was moving around in a protected wetland.
Not a huge protected wetland, mind you. But, large enough to support a GREAT BLUE HERON.
In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we ALL just get along?"
3
@Maurice S. Thompson In other words - as long as your backyard is full of wildlife, no problem? Are you questioning the methodology of the study? Maybe you should read the actual study before you get too complacent.
2
"Silent spring" echoes loudly.
But amongst the despair there is hope: we are smart enough to design ways to mitigate, to restore.
Are we smart enough to implement?
27
Sadly, for most people, wildlife and nature are something you watch on TV when there is nothing better on. Most are so cut off from the natural world that it is not even on their radar; Facebook and Twitter are so much more urgent.
49
And how many environmental regulations has Trump already gutted? 85?100? And how many does he still plan to destroy? Why are Americans silent in front of this vicious attacks on our very precious land, water and air?
Trump's environmental record should be enough not only for impeachment but for life imprisonment. Why isn't anyone doing anything? Why are Democrats relegating environmental issues to the left wing fringe of their party? This should be at the core of any presidential candidate.
80
@Andy
Calm down Andy, the US is not the only guilty party here.
The worldwide population is closing on 8 billion people. I'm sure the populations of China and India and even Europe are playing a roll in the Earth's decline.
This all didn't start to happen in 2016
4
@Norville T. Johnson
Pointing to others isn't helpful. We can't fix what others do, but we can change what we do. We can lead.
12
@Norville T. Johnson This article is about loss of North American birds. The US is by far the most populous nation in North America as well as the second largest by land mass.
What we do, or do not do in North America has a significant impact.
5
Many recent studies attribute the decline in bird populations, largely or in part, to the effects neonicotinoid "pest control" in agriculture and gardening. Neonics have decimated insect populations, but they also impact the species that depend on insects for their food--a connection affirmed recently by National Geographic. But neither National Geographic nor the Times has drawn a line connecting the neonics to their primary manufacturer, the Monsanto corporation. If we want to save the birds, we will need to clip the wings of that behemoth.
138
@Kurt Spellmeyer Yes, I saw this in my occupation and a drug company I almost went to work for. My significant other said she would leave me if I went to work for a drug company. I took a lot less money to work in academia. Colleges and Universities are now businesses working with polluters in exchange for donations.
15
@Kurt Spellmeyer
Not just birds but also honeybees, bees and other pollinators.
7
My home is on the shore of the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, at least for a few more years until it shrinks to nothing. I've watched, not only the avian population shrink at an alarming annual rate, but the other wildlife as well including coyotes, jackrabbits, and Monarch butterflies.
Humans are like mice floating on a cracker, their only source of food, in the middle of the lake. It's just a matter of time before the mice consume their life-support system.
70
This desperately necessary article should not be labeled an "op-ed"; doing so merely validates the idea that climate change and the collapse of natural ecosystems are opinion-based beliefs and not scientific fact. Furthermore, The Times has an ethical obligation to put these stories on the front page, every day.
To the point of the article: the dramatic decline of insect and bird populations portends disaster for the biosphere. When will humans recognize that everything in the natural world is interconnected? We depend on bird and insects to pollinate flowers, regulate invasive species, and nurture our waterways, forests, and fields.
On a more philosophical level, the collapse of wildlife marks the end of a certain kind of living, a certain kind of life. A life filled with birds singing in the morning; a life filled with bugs in the dirt, tickling your toes; a life filled with diversity and fecundity and abundance; a life filled with wild animals and vibrant, pollution-free oceans.
Make no mistake: the human-driven extinction of billions of wild animals is tantamount to genocide. We are not only carelessly eradicating species to satiate our greed, but dooming our children to a desperate, dry, and polluted world. Dooming them to a much different life than we have enjoyed. I am a millennial who was able to at least enjoy a childhood spent outdoors among wildlife. I worry that won't be the case for billions of children in the future.
This is why the children march.
452
@A. Walgren This is so spot on (not to mention beautifully written). Thank you.
24
@A. Walgren The situation is every bit as dire as you describe, for sure. In fairness to the NYT, though, this is an accompanying piece to the main article on this subject at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/science/bird-populations-america-canada.html . The opinions of this article's authors are valid, correct, and worth publishing, but keeping them separated out from the facts is a bulwark against being dismissed as biased or "fake news," sadly necessary in this climate for even a matter as grave as this.
10
@A. Walgren
"...eradicating species to satiate our greed..."
Please! It is not "our greed". It is greed promulgated by the elected elite of the Congress at the behest of the super rich!
3
I have lived for decades in an area where Orioles are supposed to live. I have seen two, both dead. One after it smashed into a sliding glass door and the other was in the grill of a minivan.
Deaths caused by vehicles and buildings seem to be ignored all too frequently in these studies.
11
@Reading
the best "bird-watching" comes from listening to their songs. Orioles are spectacular and showy (the males) but I hear the females sing a lot more than I see them. They usually sound like they're telling the male to go get food some food and stop trying to show off!
Plus cats usually dispose of the carcasses long before they're seen.
If you can afford to put up feeding stations, then you'll see birds more often.
Annual bird counts in your area really are important too.
2
"efforts to reduce development in wild lands and suburban sprawl"
So we see the real agenda behind this. The bird population may have declined, but the numbers presented are more than likely vague estimates. Nobody really knew the populations of these birds in 1970, and despite improvements nobody really knows now. "Science" has become a joke in recent years, as much a political manual as it is a scientific journal.
@Dave, since when has reducing development in wild lands (and accompanying suburban sprawl) been a bad thing? Take a look at Houston (my former hometown) - a city built on wild lands and wetlands, with suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see, which now floods every time it pours because all the wild lands have been converted to concrete suburbs. Is that the America you want?
50
@Dave
I suggest you actually read the cited journal article from Science Magazine and then look up the definition of "Personal Incredulity."
12
@The Real Mr. Magoo
I like a house with a yard. It's not "sprawl", its reasonable living.
There are a number of causes such as lit buildings at night, disappearing nesting sites, environmental destruction ('thanks' Trump, for speeding that up), invasive species, changing climate patterns, etc.
But a big culprit, perhaps the biggest: nearly 60 years after "Silent Spring," America is still addicted to pesticides. I'd say American industry is still addicted to pesticides, but that is not exactly accurate: American homeowners, community associations, lawn service organizations, farmers, you name it, are equally guilty - America is still addicted to pesticides, we are all still poisoning our environment.
It is not just birds either - populations of bees and other pollinators, small insects, and small reptiles and frogs are also crashing right under our noses.
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What are we doing to ourselves and the other living inhabitants of this planet? I love birds and belong to All About Birds. I love bird songs and all birds.
Many people up and down the road and area I live in put herbicides and pesticides on their lawns--the rainwater goes down the hill and into a creek where birds and other animals drink.
A farmer with an apple orchard behind our house years ago said that when he was young (more than 70 years or so), they began to spray with pesticides and then (now 45 years ago), the apples had as much damage as when his family first started spraying. The insects adapted for a while, but insects have now been greatly reduced. We are also killing the insects we need.
For thousands and thousands of years, humans lived with very little. Now we have so much and it's never enough--our greed and need is overwhelming-it is killing all of us. Somehow I can envision a world where we've extinguished ourselves. I cannot envision of world without birds.
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Scary stuff. I wonder if the study looked at the impact of things like the increasing number of high-rise buildings and those huge windmill generators. Both of those things impact large numbers of migratory birds, but I'm not sure how significant they are in the grand scheme of things like habitat loss and increased pesticide use.
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@John Jabo
"Wind turbines kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America, making it the most threatening form of green energy." 2016 Audubon
"Around 600 million birds die every year in the United States after striking tall buildings -- with Chicago, Houston and Dallas being especially deadly, according to research from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology." 2019
"Cats that live in the wild or indoor pets allowed to roam outdoors kill from 1.4 billion to as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year, says a new study that escalates a decades-old debate over the feline threat to native animals." 2013
Habitat loss is a huge element and less noticeable over the years than other causes but climate heating makes birds move to new places where they might not fare as well.
It's a shame that we allow cats to prey on birds so much. Keeping them inside and eliminating feral populations of cats would solve a lot of this.
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@lightscientist66
I find the veracity of this statement:
"Cats that live in the wild or indoor pets allowed to roam outdoors kill from 1.4 billion to as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year, says a new study that escalates a decades-old debate over the feline threat to native animals." 2013
to be highly suspect.
Where is this fact from ?
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@lightscientist66
Thanks so much for providing this. Very insightful.
This is very troubling news. If we pretend that the Earth is a human body, the rainforests would be its lungs: mass burnings as we speak. The oceans and rivers would make up the circulatory system: clogged by innumerable tons of plastic and trash. The atmosphere would be its protective skin barrier: growing more and more damaged with time. In the human body, as things start to go awry (e.g. cancer develops), many healthy cells begin to express different sets of genes or accumulate mutations, causing normal cells to be replaced by mutated ones, while the immune microenvironment begins to be compromised. The animals and their behaviors are good indicators of how well the Earth is functioning and whether something has gone awry. Here, we see that birds are disappearing – being kicked out of now inhabitable areas or dying. This is one of many signs that the Earth and its climate are suffering. In order to reverse this process we must regenerate our rainforests, clean up our waters, dump less pollution into our environment, and prioritize the well being of our animals. Only then can we hope to see a healthier Earth.
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@Molecular biologist In your example, I would argue that human beings are the cancer that is killing the body. Our population grows and grows and grows, stripping the body of its resources and bringing it closer to the end of life. We do not live in balance with the earth that supports us.
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In many ways, this news is far worse than the daily drumbeat of the awful news that is Donald Trump’s administration and his relentless search for war.
Our species has systematically eliminated natural wonders in the pursuit of profits for a few—Republicans, I’m looking at you.
Greenhouse gases smoke the skies; animals die from trying to drink from polluted waters that are nothing more than floating sewers. We are wrecking their ecosystems which, from a moral standpoint, we have no right to do. Animals and birds have a right to be here, too.
We have relinquished our stewardship of a precious calling simply to flex our muscles as the predators at the top of the food chain. Just because we can, it doesn’t mean that we should. Someday soon, that chain will break.
Whose fault will that be?
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@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Waste disposal is a huge problem that's little more than dumping the effluent into water.
Drugs consumed by people end up in waterways so much now fish are getting sex changes just from being there.
Human waste is now thought to be the basis for the ecosystem for the coast of Southern California when in my own childhood years it was kelp forests.
In places where you think it would be better, like Santa Barbara for instance, nearly 2/3 of the waste is allowed to flow into the ocean untreated except for allowing solids to settle out of the waste. That's the Goleta waste treatment facility and the smaller communities like Montecito, Summerland, and Carpenteria have really old treatment facilities that were built when the population was one-tenth of the current one.
And Malibu doesn't even have waste treatment. All those homes along the beach use septic tanks. Low tide never smelt so strange!
But it is going on all over the world in much, much more primitive fashion and toxic algal blooms are in locked step.
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@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18. What’s ironic is that Republicans used to be at the forefront of protecting the environment—EPA, Endangered Species Act, clean air and water legislation, acid rain, the ozone. Republicans now are a different breed of cat.
Sad to hear of this loss! Birds stopped singing in my heavily
wooded neighborhood months ago.
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I have lived in southcentral KY now for 7 years. From the start we had many hummingbirds that came to our feeder & so did my daughter who lives Nearby. This year, '19, I notice much less, in fact at first had only 1, then 2, & now at times 4. My daughter also has abt half as many as before. I am concerned that something is happening now to hummingbirds as has also happened to bees in our area. Used to get local honey from farm down the road. No more. Our area has green rolling hills & many trees but something very bad is happening.
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@maire
Please share the "something very bad is happening (with our ecosystem)" with your fellow Kentuckians. We need more people in states like yours, where Republicans are constantly voted into political offices, to understand the impact of scientific data-driven climate change.
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@Left Coast
If climate change was really data-driven, the alarmist panic would stop. The only data predicting catastrophic results are climate models, and the fact is all of them are dead wrong in their temperature predictions over the last 20 years. The only ones that have come close are the ones that predict very modest temperature changes. There is something seriously wrong with the theories behind climate change.
@Dave
This information is wrong. Climate models have predicted the recent temperature changes well. I would point to the IPCC projections as the most authoritative, and they have been accurate. You can find this documented here:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-well-have-climate-models-projected-global-warming
If anything, the tendency of scientists to not overstate their findings has led to less alarmist messaging than is perhaps needed right now.
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