A third of birds in North America are threatened with extinction

A billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, and a third of bird species across the continent are threatened with extinction, a new report says. The first State of North America's Birds report finds that of 1,154 bird species that live in and migrate among Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, 432 are of "high concern" due to low or declining populations, shrinking ranges and threats. Steven Price, president of Bird Studies Canada, a member of the North American Bird Initiative behind the report, says that since 1970, "the estimate is we've lost at least a billion birds from North America…. The trend lines are continuing down. They have to be turned around or will fall below a threshold where they can be recovered."

Ocean birds like northern gannets are among the most threatened, a new report suggests. Many that nest in Canada migrate to the Gulf of Mexico.

Most threatened, with more than half the species of "high concern" are ocean birds such as northern gannets, tropical and sub-tropical birds, including many that breed in Canada and the U.S., but winter in Mexico.

There are also steep declines in coastal shorebirds like semipalmated and western sandpipers and red knots, which have lost 90 per cent of their population; grassland birds such as the greater sage grouse, Sprague's pipit and chestnut-collared longspur; and aridland birds.

Once one of the most common forest birds in eastern North America, the wood thrush has decreased by almost 70% in the last 40 years. Wood thrushes and many warblers breed in Canada's forests, but winter in tropical forests of Mexico that are threatened by logging. ((Isaac Sanchez))

The North American Bird Conservation Initiative is a collaboration of conservation groups and scientists, in all three countries. The report was released partly to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the U.S. Information in the report is based on data collected by citizen scientists through bird surveys and counts since the 1970s and analyzed over the past 18 months.

It follows a similar report that focused on Canada in 2012 and found a 12 per cent drop in bird populations since 1970.

But because many birds make very long migrations, Canada's birds are "not really Canada's — they're shared across three nations," said Price.

Many grassland birds rely on habitat that run from Canada's Prairies down to Mexico's Chihuahuan grasslands — nearly 70 per cent of birds that migrate between the northern and southern grasslands have disappeared since 1970.

Source: CBC News, May 18, 2016
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/state-of-north-americas-birds-mckenna…