Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
When you think about birds, what
is the first thing that pops into your head?
“If I only could fly like a
bird,” “I hate pigeons” or “There are so many of them.” Whatever your first
thought is, it is probably not that we are currently experiencing a significant
loss of bird numbers. To be precise, in the last 50 years, over 3 billion birds
disappeared from the North American continent.
A new study, published by Canada’s Environmental Agency and the U.S.
Geological Survey indicates that since 1970, the number of birds dwindled by almost 30 percent.
One of the main reasons for such
a forceful disappearance is the invasion of humans into bird breeding grounds.
The vast expanse of agriculture had a significant impact on grassland species
because pesticides kill insects on which birds feed and living space like
shrubs and hedges are plowed. However, this practice has further reaching
implications than the staggering effect on birds. It disturbs entire
ecosystems. Birds can be predators or prey. They keep pests in place or preyed
upon by other mammals. They distribute
plant seeds or pollinate flowers, which is the main form of reproduction for
many plant species. Thus, the disappearance of birds brings a disbalance into
the ecosystems and can cause the rise or fall of many species, which in turn
has unknown consequences for us.
Though agriculture and habitat
loss can be seen as the main reasons, many other factors, produced by humans,
need to be also held accountable. Such as light pollution from cities, which
can disorient birds or buildings (particularly windows) in which they can crash
in. Windmills account additionally for some small numbers. Those factors
particularly seem to be the reason for the loss of such birds like warblers,
swallows, and other common birds. However, these are usually more resilient
than their relatives in the “wild” and should actually compensate for the
losses, which does currently not occur.
Fortunately, scientists say it is
not a crisis -yet. However, the continues monitoring of bird populations
should be used as an essential indicator of environmental status. Likely, this
is an easier task than one might think.
Birds are well monitored, due to wealth of data collected by enthusiasts
and annual counts. On a positive note,
the published study mentions an incline in some wetland species, like ducks or geese. That all said, the next time you encounter a bird, you may want to ask
yourself if its population is doing all right and what it means to the
environment.
Posted by “Gene” (2).
I think another important concept that is affecting birds is the impact of plastic pollution within our freshwaters and oceans. Within marine litter, plastics typically constitute as the dominant pollutant and have a major affect on global ecosystems across the world. Coastal bird ecosystems/beaches are being penetrated with plastic pollution and debris. As a result of this, coastal birds are changing their food diets, and consuming a considerable amount of plastic debris in their diet. There is evidence that almost every seabird has incorporated plastic now into their diet. This increases the chance of mortality for many seabirds, thus having the ability to throw off entire population dynamics and entire ecosystems.
ReplyDelete-Elise Babula
You are right, the pollution of water with micro plastic and other debris is a serious problem. When I was leaving in California, I was helping clean the local beach and there was always so much plastic trash. And you would see seagulls picking in it. It is a well known problem that sea birds eat a lot of plastic because they can't distinguish between see food and trash. But to challenge that issue, humans need to find better ways to dispose of plastic.
Delete-Gene
You are correct: the first thought that crossed my mind was "there are so many of them!" Your post shocked me; I had previously believed bird species' populations to be increasing since the halt in excessive pesticide usage in the 60's. If any major changes are going to be made to prevent issues like these, major actions must be took. I don't think adding in more bird sanctuaries will fix this issue. Fixing problems like light pollution and excessive pesticide usage will do more to prevent the disappearance of birds. Particularly, light pollution seems like an easy problem to solve among these problems; adding timers to lights as well as motion sensors would significantly reduce the amount of wasted light each night. Also, reducing light pollution would do more than just save birds; there are many species that are harmed by our artificial light.
ReplyDelete-David Frykenberg
I was actually really surprised to learn that the bird population is actually decreasing. I feel like whenever I have looked into the sky I would see huge flocks of these birds flying around. But at the same time, at the rate in which our planet is declining I am not too surprised that we are seeing a decrease in animals. In particular, the pollution around the world is getting incredibly worse which would have an impact on these birds. I don't think that this problem is going to improve. Sadly, people will continue to cause pollution or spread pesticides as long as they are still benefiting. I think that people need to really take a look or do some research to see how our planet needs our help. Us humans are huge contributors and need to think long and hard about the footprint we are leaving.
ReplyDeleteSorry I forgot to write my name on the post above and couldn't figure out how to delete it.
DeleteI was actually really surprised to learn that the bird population is actually decreasing. I feel like whenever I have looked into the sky I would see huge flocks of these birds flying around. But at the same time, at the rate in which our planet is declining I am not too surprised that we are seeing a decrease in animals. In particular, the pollution around the world is getting incredibly worse which would have an impact on these birds. I don't think that this problem is going to improve. Sadly, people will continue to cause pollution or spread pesticides as long as they are still benefiting. I think that people need to really take a look or do some research to see how our planet needs our help. Us humans are huge contributors and need to think long and hard about the footprint we are leaving.
-Written by Matt Cayer
Your article reminds me of something I read a few years ago about eagle populations and DDT. DDT basically revolutionized the industrial agriculture business because it was such an effective pesticide. It was so effective but it also -seemingly- had little to no adverse effects on crops and wildlife. It wasn't until people started noticing that wild eagles had basically disappeared. It wasn't until then that scientists started really looking into what kind effect that DDT had on wildlife and the food chain. This revealed that DDT was detrimental to the eggs that birds laid. It made the eggshells extremely thin and fragile, so when the mother would sit on the eggs they would be crushed. This finding effectively got DDT banned for being used as a crop pesticide.
ReplyDeleteLiz Clark
I also read about DDT. I believe one of the species that was strongly affected by the pesticide was the Bald Eagle. They were almost extinguished, and there were as little as 400breeding pairs on the continental U.S. But thanks to conservation efforts and the ban of DDT, the population is back to 10,000.
Delete-Gene
Your post is very interesting as it relates to one of the most prevalent issues in our society nowadays. This also relates to another blog post by another classmate on the topic of white rhinos on the verge of extinction. Not only is climate change forcing many species on earth to adapt, excessive hunting and also deforestation are also affecting those communities of species detrimentally.
ReplyDelete-posted by Emily Wong
This post surprised me a little bit. I had no idea that the bird population has decreased so much mainly due to pollution caused by humans. It's sad that so many species have decreasing populations due to humans. I wonder when people are gonna start to realize that there is only one earth and once something is gone you cant get it back. Birds especially play a big role in spreading seeds and pollen to many different areas. And with the decrease in the honeybee population already, I wonder how the bird decrease will affect this ongoing issue.
ReplyDelete-Posted by Sophie DeRepentigny