An Avifaunal Crisis - our birds are disappearing

In the United States and Canada, birds are disappearing; 29% of birds have disappeared since 1970, which is a loss of nearly three billion birds. Of these, grassland birds showed the largest magnitude of population loss at over 700 million individuals across 31 species. Conversation around the global biodiversity crisis often revolves around extinctions, but rarely do we pay as much attention to the equally alarming population declines in still-common species. After all, extinction begins with a loss in abundance of individuals, which can result in compositionally and functionally altered and damaged ecosystems. 

Photo Credits: dfaulder Flickr (open source image)

Avifaunal collapse could mean eventual “degradation of ecosystem integrity, reducing vital ecological, evolutionary, economic, and social services that organisms provide to their environments”. Agricultural intensification can fragment birds’ natural habitats, and has been connected to decreased insect diversity, which subsequently has cascading effects on the rest of the impacted ecosystem. Urbanization similarly degrades birds’ natural habitats, along with increasing potentially fatal collisions with manmade structures and vehicles. Their insect prey - many of which are pollinators – are also sharply declining. North American birds also face a variety of unknown threats while on their wintering grounds and face an often unpredictable ‘greening pattern’ as they journey north each spring. Even now, avian bird flu is spreading.

To contribute to our understanding of this crisis as well as seek prevention and solutions, YERC is actively working in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This summer, field technician Paige Cresswell will spearhead efforts to conduct bird surveys in Paradise Valley. In the past Paige and other YERC biologists have documented songbird abundance inside Yellowstone National Park and outside in Paradise Valley to determine possible causes of songbird declines and local recoveries due to management activities such as the reintroduction of wolves. Paige will conduct early morning “point counts’ and record the density of breeding pairs along transects mostly focused on the dynamic riparian habitats that underwent flood impacts last year. Trends and analysis of spatial patterns will help determine solutions or what YERC calls, “safe, stronghold habitats'' for songbirds as well as other wildlife species in peril.