Thursday, December 23, 2004
Birds are losing ground
Four calling birds,
three French hens,
two turtledoves,
and a partridge in a pear tree ...
So goes the familiar holiday tune. Unfortunately, this holiday season, scientists are heralding bad news for birds. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that one-quarter of all bird species likely will disappear or will be critically endangered by the end of this century because of habitat loss, global warming and invasive species. The National Audubon Society's recent State of the Birds report further confirms that we are not gaining ground but losing it -- literally.
Audubon's study highlights America's most rapidly declining birds. Topping the list are two species that nest and raise their young in Canadian boreal forests but winter in the United States. The rusty blackbird, a shy, unassuming cousin to the abundant red-winged blackbird, has declined by a staggering 97.9 percent since 1966. Millions have just disappeared over the past three decades. Lesser yellowlegs, a long-legged shorebird that nests in mossy boreal bogs far to our north, have declined by 97.3 percent.
These declining birds and more than 200 other species nest in the 1.4 billion-acre boreal forest that stretches from Alaska to Newfoundland. The boreal forest is one of the last, great wilderness regions left on Earth. One-third of the birds visiting the tens of millions of backyard bird feeders in the United States may have been born in Canada's boreal region. According to a 2003 report by Bird Studies Canada, approximately 1 billion songbirds from the boreal forest winter in the United States.
Seattle regularly hosts more than 50 boreal bird species each winter, including dark-eyed juncos, purple finches and northern flickers. The scaup, scoters, bufflehead and loons that you see in the Puget Sound area as well as the trumpeter swans that can be seen in the Skagit Valley come from the boreal. Information about the boreal birds that winter or migrate through the Seattle area can be found in an interactive Boreal Bird Guide developed by the Boreal Songbird Initiative at www.borealbirds.org.
Since 1975, about 60 million acres of Canadian boreal forest has been logged and development in the region is rapidly escalating. Much of the logging feeds newsprint, catalogs, junk mail and tissue paper consumed in the United States. Associated habitat loss could very well be contributing to abrupt declines in at least 40 bird species.
In November, one of the world's most important conservation gatherings, the World Conservation Union, formally called for increased boreal conservation. Fortunately, leading conservationists, resource companies and first nations are crafting the Boreal Conservation Framework. This cutting-edge initiative envisions protecting half the region as wild land while ensuring sustainable development in other areas.
What can you do closer to home to ensure that boreal birds keep coming to your back yard? Buy recycled paper products. Write letters asking catalog companies such as Victoria's Secret and tissue manufacturers such as Kimberly Clark to stop using paper made from virgin boreal forest. Participate in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now in its 105th season. In Seattle, the count takes place on Sunday (seattleaudubon.org).
Internationally 55,000 citizen observers will be counting birds in nearly 2,000 locations and it provides researchers with vitally important data that will help protect such places as the boreal forest and the birds that depend on it. Not to mention it's a great excuse for spending a day outside in nature and you can tell your kids you are helping save a billion birds.