Birds may seem plentiful to us, but they're actually in crisis worldwide. The National Audubon Society reports that we've lost billions of birds in North America during the last half-century.
An ornithologist who’s the author of a new book about birds, and is speaking in Santa Barbara this week, says some bird species are in trouble. But, he also believes it's not too late to make a difference.
"We've lost about a third of North America's birds in the last 50 years or so, which is slightly less than three billion fewer individuals than there were in 1970," said Scott Weidensaul.
He's the author of a new book, The Return of the Oystercatchers: Saving Birds to Save the Planet. He said many species of birds are facing major challenges. His book shows examples of how we can help them survive and flourish.
"We've seen certain groups of birds, like waterfowl and raptors, that we've really brought back in a huge way," said Weidensaul.
"I graduated from high school in 1976, the bicentennial year," Weidensaul said. "That year, there were probably fewer than a thousand bald eagles in the entire lower 48. If you had told me then that by the time we were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country, there would be 400,000 bald eagles, I would have asked what you were smoking; it would have seemed incomprehensible."
He talked about what’s happened to North America’s waterfowl over the decades.
"As recently as the 1980s, there was serious concern about permanently losing a lot of North America's waterfowl, because we'd gone through this postwar industrialization boom. We'd seen the destruction of millions and millions of acres of wetland habitat that waterfowl depend on. Then, there was a period of profound drought in the 1980's. Duck populations in particular really crashed."
According to Weidensaul, people finally realized the scope of the crisis and stepped up to help.
"Sometimes, things have to get bad before they get better. What happened in the mid-'90s is that a lot of people recognized that having ducks in the landscape was a good thing. And if you want to have ducks, you have to have a good habitat. Congress passed some landmark legislation like the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and we put just a bucketload of money into restoring and protecting wetland habitat."
He said the problems facing birds include loss of habitat, pollution, and the impacts of climate change. Weidensaul says there’s another issue many people underestimate.
"Cats kill two to four billion birds a year in the United States. It's both house cats and feral cats. If people want to protect birds, the single most important thing they can do is if they have a cat, keep it in the house."
The ornithologist said the steps that need to be taken to help birds, like protecting and restoring habitat, mean much more to us than just saving them. He said they serve as the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' when it comes to warning people about environmental crises.
"A world that works for birds is going to work for everything," said Weidensaul. "Right now, the birds are telling us the planet is in trouble. What I'm trying to do is show times, places, and ways we've been able to make in some cases pretty minor changes in the ways we do things to bring about a renaissance for the birds."
Weidensaul said the success stories with birds demonstrate we can reverse some of the damage we’ve caused when we do things like preserving and restoring wildlife habitat.
"If we really put our minds to it, we can do amazing things for birds."
But, he cautions, none of this is permanent, and we have to work to keep protections in place.
Weidensaul will speak at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History on Tuesday night (May 5). His lecture, Saving Birds To Save The Planet, is sponsored by the Santa Barbara Audubon Society.
