Worldwide, 1 in 8 bird species is at risk of extinction.1 We should be very concerned, since, as BirdLife International notes, “Birds are our early warning system.”2 Declines in bird populations signal that something serious is happening in the environment — habitats are being destroyed, chemical pesticides are taking a toll on wildlife and more.
Already, 223 bird species are critically endangered3 and could disappear from the planet — a loss that would cut deeply. BirdLife explains:4
“Birds have the power to unite people. Many species migrate vast distances, motivating nations to work together to protect them every step of the way. In this way, birds show us the levels of global cooperation needed to tackle the … extinction crises in coming years. More simply than that, a love of birds is something we can all share, regardless of our differences.”
Imagining a world without birds isn’t only about missing their visual beauty and melodic songs. Birds are a crucial element of our ecosystem, controlling pests, spreading seeds and pollinating about 5% of plants that humans use for food and medicine.5 So, a loss of birds should sound alarm bells for every one of us.
“Birds tell us about the health of our natural environment — we ignore their messages at our peril,” says Patricia Zurita, BirdLife’s CEO.6
3 Billion North American Birds Gone in 50 Years
The situation is dire for many bird species, including the black-tailed godwit, a large shorebird with long legs and an equally long bill. Wired interviewed Alice Cerutti, whose 115-hectare (about 284-acre) rice farm in Italy is the country’s last known regular nesting site for the species:7
“During the past decade or so, she and her family have planted thousands of trees, reestablished wetlands, and brought in experts to help study and manage the precious birds that nest in areas Cerutti has set aside for wildlife. It seems to be working. ‘We have this amazing and big responsibility,’ Cerutti says … Local researchers found the bird clinging on there even as it disappeared from other locations.”
It's a story of hope among an otherwise dismal outlook. A net loss of 2.9 billion birds, or 29%, occurred in the U.S. and Canada since 1970,8 including not only rare species but also common birds at backyard feeders, such as sparrows, warblers, finches and blackbirds.9 Writing in the journal Science, researchers and colleagues with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology explained:10
“Integration of range-wide population trajectories and size estimates indicates a net loss approaching 3 billion birds … A continent-wide weather radar network also reveals a similarly steep decline in biomass passage of migrating birds over a recent 10-year period. This loss of bird abundance signals an urgent need to address threats to avert future avifaunal collapse and associated loss of ecosystem integrity, function, and services.”
Nineteen common bird species lost more than 50 million birds during the study period, with lead author and conservation scientist Ken Rosenberg told CBS News, "There's an erosion of the numbers of common birds." "We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species," he said. "But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds."11
Birds Declining Throughout Europe
7 Simple Steps to Help Birds
The light at the end of the tunnel is regenerative agriculture, which is a savior to birds, insects and other species worldwide. The best course of action to reduce the harm of industrial agriculture and habitat loss is having on birds is to support biodynamic, grass fed farms that are conserving diversity and not relying on synthetic chemicals and other intensive agriculture practices that harm birds and other wildlife.
Meanwhile, we can all get involved to help make the world a safer place for birds. 3 Billion Birds, a partnership between Audubon, American Bird Conservancy, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Georgetown Environment Initiative, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Smithsonian, suggests everyone take the following seven actions to help birds now, before their populations decline even further:33
1.Make windows safer — Install screens or break up reflections using film, paint or string to prevent birds from hitting your windows.
2.Keep cats indoors — Free-roaming cats kill birds; give your cat environmental enrichment by providing a catio, a secure outdoor enclosure where your cat can enjoy the outdoors without harming birds.
3.Reduce your lawn, plant native plants instead — Lawns do little to support birds, while native plants sustain birds and provide shelter and nesting areas.
4.Avoid pesticides — They’re toxic to birds and reduce insects, which birds rely on for food; avoid using pesticides in your home and garden and choose organic or biodynamic food produced without pesticides.
5.Choose shade-grown coffee — Sun-grown coffee contributes to forest destruction and requires pesticides and fertilizers; shade-grown coffee preserves forests and helps migratory birds survive the winter.
6.Avoid plastic — Plastic is polluting oceans and harming wildlife, including seabirds; avoid all forms of single-use plastics, including bags, bottles, straws, disposable utensils and wraps.
7.Watch birds and share — Monitoring birds is important to protect them. According to 3 Billion Birds, “The world’s most abundant bird, the Passenger Pigeon, went extinct, and people didn’t realize how quickly it was vanishing until it was too late.”34
Researchers need help from citizen scientists to monitor birds in their own communities and report on what they see. A number of projects are underway, including eBird, Project FeederWatch and a Christmas Bird Count, so you can get involved watching birds in your own backyard.
- 1, 2 BirdLife International, Homepage
- 3, 4, 5 BirdLife International, Birds
- 6, 12, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26 BirdLife International September 28, 2022
- 7, 13, 28 Wired June 20, 2023
- 8 The New York Times September 22, 2019
- 9, 11 CBS News September 19, 2019
- 10 Science September 19, 2019
- 14 British Trust for Ornithology May 11, 2023
- 15 Glob Chang Biol. 2019 Feb;25(2):577-588. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14522. Epub 2018 Dec 11
- 16 Conserv Biol. 2019 Oct;33(5):1120-1130. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13307. Epub 2019 Mar 26
- 17 BirdLife International, State of the World’s Birds 2022
- 21 CBC October 1, 2013
- 22 Science September 13, 2019
- 23 3billionbirds.org, Findings
- 27 3billionbirds.org, Findings, Bar Chart
- 29 Scientific Reports October 27, 2022, Intro
- 30 Scientific Reports October 27, 2022
- 31 Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr; 17(7): 2271., Abstract
- 32 Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Dec 23; 287(1941): 20201811., Background
- 33, 34 3billionbirds.org, 7 Simple Actions To Help Birds
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