03/14/2023

America's Songbirds are Disappearing

Here are eight ways you can help them as spring approaches

I love this time of year, because that means lots of birds are migrating to their breeding grounds. Last spring, I was lucky enough to spot a Painted Bunting, a Blackburnian Warbler, and an Orchard Oriole, just to name a few!

But across North America, we've seen a staggering loss of birds. A 2019 study led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found that there are 3 billion fewer breeding birds than in 1970. To put that into context: We've lost roughly one in four birds over the course of my parents' lifetime.

Birds can serve as indicator species, which are species that help us understand how healthy an ecosystem is. "If we're seeing them decline, then we know something is wrong with our environment and that should concern us, because our health is tied up in the same shared environment," said Miyoko Chu, the director of communications at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.