Illegal trade in wild birds - an international scourge

Although it may surprise some people, and in fact we should have seen its end long before now, the illegal international trade in wild birds continues. Learn more about it, and what you can do to help it cease:

https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/policy/wild-bird-trade-and-cites 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/photo-ark-parrots/

https://www.audubon.org/news/the-illegal-parrot-trade

Hyacinth Macaw, by Donna Sullivan Thomson

New publications on the effect of climate change on birds

Each year additional studies on the effect of climate change on wild birds are published. 

 New publications include the following:  

Risk to North American birds from climate change‐related threats https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.243  

North American birds require mitigation and adaptation to reduce vulnerability to climate change https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.242  

Shifts in migration phenology under climate change: temperature vs. abundance effects in birds https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02668-8  

Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.13434

Understanding declines of aerial insectivores in North America

 A growing body of research demonstrates that aerial insectivores as a group are undergoing population changes, and in some species (nightjars, some swallows) are experiencing population declines.

The following papers describe some of what has been learned:

Evidence for multiple drivers of aerial insectivore declines in North America

Kimberly J Spiller, Randy Dettmers.
The Condor, Volume 121, Issue 2, 1 May 2019

https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/121/2/duz010/5497088

 "Aerial insectivores (birds that forage on aerial insects) have experienced significant population declines in North America. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed for these declines, but current evidence suggests multiple factors could be operating in combination during their annual migratory cycles between breeding and nonbreeding areas. Potential drivers include decreased prey abundance, direct or indirect impacts of environmental contaminants, habitat loss, phenological changes due to warming climate, and conditions on migratory stopover or wintering grounds."

 

 Nebel, S., A. Mills, J. D. McCracken, and P. D. Taylor. 2010. Declines of aerial insectivores in North America follow a geographic gradient. Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux 5(2): 1. [online] URL: http://www.ace-eco.org/vol5/iss2/art1/

Kevin C Fraser , Bridget J M Stutchbury, Cassandra Silverio, Patrick M Kramer, John Barrow, David Newstead, Nanette Mickle, Bruce F Cousens, J Charlene Lee, Danielle M Morrison, Tim Shaheen, Paul Mammenga, Kelly Applegate, John Tautin.  2012. Continent-wide tracking to determine migratory connectivity and tropical habitat associations of a declining aerial insectivore. Proceedings. Royal Soc. B.2794901–4906

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2012.2207#d62867049e722s

 

Western Meadowlark: an iconic grassland bird in decline

Grasslands are among the most threatened habitats in North America. Loss of or alteration of this habitat to many other land-uses has had harmful effects on grassland birds, mammals, and other wildlife species that are found here. The study referenced below has shown that grasslands have lost more than 700 million birds in the last half-century - a total decline of more than 40 percent.

The Western Meadowlark is still found in grasslands in the United States, Mexico and Canada. These distinctive and colorful birds are melodic singers. In their habitat, they nest on the ground, and feed themselves and their young on insects and seeds.This meadowlark species is still relatively common, but recent trends exhibit population declines.

Learn more about this iconic grassland bird:

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/western-meadowlark

This graph shows the trend for the population across its US range:

Chimney Swifts: get ready for their return!

In Wisconsin, we have an excellent group focused on conservation of the Chimney Swift: the WI Chimney Swift Working Group: https://www.wiswifts.org/

Please check out their website to learn more about swifts, their ecology, how to become more involved, and how to participate in "Swift Nights Out" this year. All of those activities are important for protection of this species.

Bank Swallow news

Bank Swallow, Ph. by Manoj Karingamadathil  - Wikim. Commons

Of all of the aerial insectivores in our broad geographic area, Bank Swallow is the one that is being lost the most rapidly.

Learn more:

Partners in Flight species assessment

https://partnersinflight.org/species/bank-swallow/

Canada species assessment

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/bank-swallow.html

Manitoba Species At Risk

https://www.birdatlas.mb.ca/speciesatrisk/species/BankSwallow/species.htm

Reproductive success and health of breeding Bank Swallows (Riparia riparia) in aggregate (sand and gravel) pit and natural lakeshore habitats

https://academic.oup.com/condor/article-abstract/121/4/duz050/5613992

North American Bank Swallow numbers declined by 94% from 1966 to 2014

https://www.boerenlandvogels.nl/node/5217

parallel declines in abundance of insects and insectivorous birds

Parallel declines in abundance of insects and insectivorous birds in Denmark over 22 years

Anders Pape Møller

See the paper at this link:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ece3.5236

 Dr. Anders Pape Moller completed a 21-year study that demonstrates how declining insect abundance may be linked to declines in numbers of insectivorous birds. Published last spring in the journal Ecology and Evolution...

 "This 21‐year study of insect abundance showed a tenfold decline. The decline in insect abundance reported here could partly be attributed to changes in climate. Such declines in insect abundance may have consequences for reproductive success in insectivorous birds such as hirundines (swallows), but also have consequences for population size as documented in the present study. Long‐term population declines in abundance of insects must have important consequences for insectivores, interspecific interactions, and ecosystem functioning."

using eBird; ways to improve your checklists

If you've been using eBird, good for you. If you haven't tried it, you really might want to start.

Here are a few reasons:

It's easy. It's fun.

It makes your data useful to science in a broad array of ways  - consider the recently-completed 5 years of field-work on the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II, which gathered data from

125,641 checklists, submitted by 2,147 participants

Here's a great set of ways to improve your checklists:
https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000795623-ebird-best-practices