Pesticides are to blame for millions of birds lost from the New Zealand countryside over the past 30 years

Millions of birds have been lost from New Zealand countryside over the past 30 years. Most of them were introduced birds so have not been missed, but surely someone should have recognised that their loss indicated something had gone very wrong with farmland ecosystems. It is the decline of insects that has had the greatest impact on birds. There is no monitoring of insects in New Zealand to my knowledge. However, the front car window, acting as an informal splatter test for insects, has revealed their precipitous decline, along with insect-eating birds, over the last 30 years, in line with what is happening on the rest of the planet. The widespread use of pesticides is undoubtedly to blame.

Source: Stuff, 23 Jan 2019
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/109993132/why-havent-we-noticed-the…