![]() ![]() Shorebirds had been at low numbers, and now another third of their population is gone. Coauthor Arvind Panjabi, of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, told me that northeast Montana has some of the “best, last habitat” for grassland birds. “Grassland birds have shown the largest loss and the steepest rate of decline of any group birds,” reported lead author Ken Rosenberg, of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Migratory birds suffered significant losses. Even remote wilderness areas experienced a decline in total bird population. Sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, finches, meadowlarks and other birds have declined in numbers. The authors concluded that North America has lost more than one in four of its birds since 1970. The authors studied over 500 species of breeding birds in the continental United States and Canada over the past 50 years. 19 reveals that the bird population is crashing again. Legislation was particularly effective, aided by public and private investments in conservation.Ī new study published in the journal Science on Sept. ![]() The Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916 and Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 provided additional protection for migratory birds, as well as their eggs, nests, and feathers. The 1913 Federal Migratory Bird Law provided the first federal regulation of migratory bird hunting. President Theodore established the many national bird reservations (predecessors of national wildlife preserves). Some states passed the Model Bird Law prepared by the American Ornithological Union’s Committee on Bird Protection. In 1900 Audubon societies began the annual Christmas Bird Survey, which involved citizens in the collection of scientific data. Experts of the day agreed that concrete action based on science was needed. The average of Hornaday’s state estimates yielded an average 46 percent decline overall in the nation’s overall bird population from the 1880s. Hornaday estimated that Montana had lost 75 percent of its birds in the previous 15 years. The numbers varied state by state, from a low of 10 percent for Nebraska to a high of 77 percent for Florida. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Park, tried to quantify the bird losses. ![]() In the late 19th century bird populations in the United States declined drastically. ![]()
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