Archive | Conservation

The Thing with Feathers

By Dan Greaney on September 26, 2020 in BirdWords, Conservation

Female Lesser Goldfinch

Emily Dickinson famously wrote “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Now, under the oppressive disorientation of Covid-19, massive wildfires, technological manipulation, and political fragmentation, we may find that such hope can offer useful direction.

Birds suffer illness and death just as we do, but like the canaries of old, sometimes they show the environmental effects sooner and more dramatically. Pollution, hurricanes, and fires cost human lives. For birds, these and other habitat changes coincide with their 30% decline in North America over the last half century.

This month hundreds of thousands of many species of songbirds were found scattered dead throughout the southern reaches of America’s Great Basin. We don’t know why yet. A leading initial guess is that the smoke damaged their lungs– a plausible explanation considering that the death-blow hit birds that were likely migrating, and flight muscles have a high demand for oxygen. Whatever the cause or causes, something is clearly wrong.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Worldwide, the international community has failed to meet a single of this past decade’s targets to maintain wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems. The UN’s head of biodiversity, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, reports that “Earth’s living systems as a whole are being compromised. And the more humanity exploits nature in unsustainable ways and undermines its contributions to people, the more we undermine our own wellbeing, security and prosperity.”

So we breathe toxic air, and birds fall out of it. But faced with adversity, hope cries for action. The big things for birds–designing development to accommodate biological health–are choices we make as a society, through government. The little things we can do individually and right now.

Water is needed as dry weather and smokey conditions continue. A shallow dish with a rock perch can provide both drinking and bathing opportunities. Sloping the water from shallow to an inch or so deep can allow different sized birds to use it. Refresh the water daily to clean out ash and thwart mosquitoes and disease.

Birdseed can sustain many species. Finches love black oil sunflower and thistle seeds. Sparrows, now returning from nesting grounds in Alaska and the Rockies, devour white millet and cracked grains–especially scattered on the ground. Avoid overfeeding–if the seed rots it will introduce harmful bacteria. If the birds eat the mix you offer, you’ve found a good one!

Food and water are best placed near plants that offer shelter from predatory hawks–but try not to conceal predatory cats! Cats are best kept indoors. They are one of the biggest contributors to songbird declines.

Plants, particularly native plants, offer both food and shelter for many species. Consider the birds as you design and tend your yard. Letting fall’s leaves lie will help develop a rich soil and natural bird food.

There are needs beyond what we can provide individually. Clean air is not something we can deliver in our private yards, nor can we individually protect extensive and diverse habitats. But as a society we can, and we each participate in society, locally, nationally, and globally. The UN, our body for international cooperation, plans to set this decade’s biodiversity goals next spring.

If we will deliver health and beauty for birds, we will be reaping it for ourselves, too. Those are feathers to hope on.

New Endangered Species Act Rules Will Weaken Protections for Birds and Other Imperiled Wildlife

By Larry Jordan on August 12, 2019 in Conservation

Bald Eagle

Final regulations diminish science-based decision-making and will reduce protections for birds

WASHINGTON – The final Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulatory reform package, released today by the Departments of the Interior and Commerce, fails the most important measure of any changes to a bedrock environmental law by marginalizing science-based protections for wildlife.

“As a whole, the rule changes are political, unwise, and will only increase litigation. They tip the balance in decision-making against vulnerable wildlife and undermine incentives for effective conservation,” said Sarah Greenberger, senior vice president for conservation policy at the National Audubon Society.

While some of the new rules are reasonable – including making it easier to direct resources to conservation projects by speeding up consultation requirements for federal projects that are beneficial to species – other changes would severely weaken protections for imperiled species.

The most egregious of the new changes would allow the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to consider the economic costs of listing a species – something expressly prohibited under existing law. Other changes will make it much more difficult to provide any protections to newly listed “threatened species” or to designate the “critical habitat” species need to recover. The new rules also allow the FWS to ignore the dire effects of climate change on imperiled species – effects we are seeing with greater regularity, such as hurricanes that jeopardize the Piping Plover.

“While Audubon could have supported some changes that may improve implementation while speeding up support for at-risk wildlife, these damaging new rules will weaken protections for imperiled species and include language that is wholly contrary to the law,” said Greenberger.

The ESA is our nation’s most powerful tool for protecting wildlife. Protections provided by the Act have succeeded in preventing the extinction of 99 percent of the species listed and benefitted many others that depend on the landscapes it’s helped to protect. The ESA has helped numerous species recover, including the Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, and Brown Pelican, and set many other species on the path to recovery.

Homes for Birds, Yard by Yard

By Dan Greaney on January 26, 2019 in BirdWords, Conservation

Hermit Thrush

For birds, yard after yard after yard adds up to a lot of potential homes. Backyard sanctuaries are pleasant for people, too, and fairly easy to provide. Just consider the basic elements of habitat: food, water, and shelter.

Providing food does not require filling feeders. Feeders can be fun because they draw birds for easy viewing, but they also require periodic cleaning to minimize spreading disease—say, once a month with a nine to one water to bleach solution. Hummingbird feeders require cleaning and refreshing every 2-3 days in the summer.

Plants will feed birds with less fuss. Berries and seeds on shrubs, grasses, and trees are all natural food supplies. Flowers, especially tubular ones like fuchsia and penstemon, offer nectar to hummingbirds. Benign neglect of gardens leaves old seedheads for winter consumption and unraked leaves for scratching through for the food they hold. Even without bird-edible fruits and seeds, plants feed insects, which become the main source of protein for songbirds around the world. Native plants are usually best, as they have evolved with the birds and insects of the area and usually support them most effectively.

Cedar Waxwing and American Robin

Of course, avoid pesticides and herbicides. At worst they poison the birds, and at best they kill off the birds’ food source.

Plants also offer shelter. Some birds roost high in trees, others in shrubs, still others on the ground under brush. If décor and fire safety call for pruning up, consider retaining some low shrubbery for sparrows or quail. Woodpeckers carve numerous holes in dead wood, creating homes used by many bird species. You may choose not to leave whole snags standing, but just a standing trunk can invite excavations that bluebirds, wrens, flycatchers, titmice, nuthatches, and swallows will readily use.

Western Bluebird Male

Those familiar cavity-nesters will also use home-made nesting boxes. To find bird-house directions, at wintuaudubon.org see Places to bird/Attracting birds. In our area, it’s best to mount your birdhouses in shaded areas.

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Of course, ensure that your yard is as feline-free as possible. Outdoor cats kill 15-20% of North American birds every year, including nearly 50% of suburban fledglings.

Water remains the elixir of life. A shallow pan, refreshed every day, makes an easy start. A trickle of running water invites many more visits. Small pumps are inexpensive and can run a home-made fountain if electricity is safely available. For permanent pools, mosquito-fish are available from Shasta County at (530) 365-3768.

Consider commercial fountains carefully. Songbirds prefer shallow puddles; a sloping edge will accommodate birds of different sizes for both drinking and bathing. Steep edges inhibit use.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Birds have lost vast swathes of former habitat. The wildfires are hardly the worst of it. If we can curb the super-sizing of them, fires are natural, and the cycle of light burn and fresh regrowth benefits many species. The more devastating disruption is the permanent and widespread habitat conversion of historical oak woodlands, wildflower fields, and riparian meanders into row crops, monoculture orchards and tree farms, pavement, and buildings. Now climate change is expected to further eliminate half the seasonal range of 314 North American bird species. It’s a tough time to be dependent on an ecosystem.

We can shape our yards to offer the food, water, and shelter that will help many birds still find homes.

“Extinction Plan”: Iconic Western Bird Among Ten Species Facing A Bleak Future

By Larry Jordan on December 21, 2018 in Conservation

Yellow-billed-Cuckoo photo by Paul Sparks

Weakened Wildlife Protections May Lead to Loss of Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo

(Washington, D.C., December 18, 2018) The current Administration is on the cusp of finalizing a set of rules to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and a new report out today lists ten animals threatened by the Administration’s existing and proposed policies. The Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, as well as the California Condor, the West Indian Manatee and other mammals, two sea turtles, an amphibian, and a rare bumble bee, are listed in the report, “Extinction Plan,” released by the Endangered Species Coalition, American Bird Conservancy, and partners.

The Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo is found in increasingly isolated patches of habitat in 12 western states, from the West Coast east to Texas. Unlike Old World cuckoos, which are nest parasites that lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo raises its own young, and both parents participate equally in chick-rearing.

Estimated to have a population of fewer than 2,000 individuals, the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo was listed as a Threatened species under the ESA in 2014. But loss of nesting habitat along rivers and streams continues, even as the Administration proposes to remove the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo from the endangered species list.

“In spite of the 2014 addition of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo to the ESA, no critical habitat has ever been designated to support the bird’s recovery, and the population has not had a chance to recover to a safe level,” said Steve Holmer, Vice President of Policy for American Bird Conservancy. “Meanwhile, water diversions, housing developments, and pesticide spraying on fields near breeding habitat continue to endanger the remaining birds. It is crucial that ESA protection remain in place and that critical habitat is protected or restored.”

The Administration’s proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act would affect the cuckoo and all listed species, as well as those that might require ESA listing in the future. For example, the changes would:

Make it much more difficult to protect species impacted by climate change.
Make it harder to list a new species and easier to remove those now on the list.
Make it harder to designate critical habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife.
Reduce protections for threatened species.

Although the Administration and some members of Congress have sought to weaken the Act, public opinion research indicates that the law continues to maintain broad, bipartisan public support. A 2015 poll conducted by Tulchin Research found that 90 percent of American voters across all political, regional, and demographic lines support the Endangered Species Act.

The ESA was a landmark conservation law that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support: 92-0 in the Senate, and 394-4 in the House, and signed by President Richard Nixon 45 years ago on December 28.

In 2017, American Bird Conservancy and more than 400 other organizations signed a letter to members of Congress opposing efforts to weaken the ESA, noting that the law has a 99 percent success rate and has brought back species from the Bald Eagle to the Humpback Whale. ABC’s report on the success of the ESA is available here.

Endangered Species Coalition’s member groups nominated species for the “Extinction Plan” report. A committee of distinguished scientists reviewed the nominations, and decided which species should be included. Please see the full report, along with photos and additional species information.

The Endangered Species Coalition produces a “Top 10” report annually, focusing on a different theme each year. Previous years’ reports are also available on the Coalition’s website.

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American Bird Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. With an emphasis on achieving results and working in partnership, we take on the greatest problems facing birds today, innovating and building on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Find us on abcbirds.org, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ABCbirds).

World Migratory Bird Day 2018

By Larry Jordan on May 11, 2018 in Birds, Conservation, In the News

International Migratory Bird Day

In 1993, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center created International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD). This educational campaign focused on the Western Hemisphere and celebrates its 25th year in 2018. Since 2007, IMBD has been coordinated by Environment for the Americas (EFTA), a non-profit organization that strives to connect people to bird conservation.

Broad-winged Hawk juvenile at Marin Headlands Hawkwatch during fall migration

In 2018, EFTA joins the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) to create a single, global bird conservation education campaign, World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). WMBC celebrates and brings attention to one of the most important and spectacular events in the Americas – bird migration.

Important Bird Areas

Over the years, EFTA has made changes and improvements to International Migratory Bird Day. They developed the concept of a single conservation theme to help highlight one topic that is important to migratory bird conservation. Over the years, these educational campaigns have been integrated into numerous programs and events, focusing on topics including the habitats birds need to survive, birds and the ecosystem services they provide, the impacts of climate change on birds, and the laws, acts, and conventions that protect birds, such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Convention on Biodiversity.

The Pectoral Sandpiper migrates from South America to the Arctic, a total return-trip of more than 30,000 km

They also removed a specific date from the event. Once celebrated only on the second Saturday in May, they recognize that migratory birds leave and arrive at breeding and non-breeding states at different times, depending on many factors. They also stop at different sites across the Western Hemisphere to rest and refuel, providing opportunities to engage the public in learning about birds and their conservation. Today, they maintain traditional event dates on the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October, while encouraging organizations and groups to host their activities when migratory birds are present.