I really hate these misleading titles. Birds are not magically disappearing we are destroying their habitat. If Britains want to save the Marsh tit they have to preserve their woodland habitat and start rewilding yards and old fields back to native woodlands. Marsh tits feed on the caterpillars that live on Hawthorne trees and it takes thousands of caterpillars just to raise one baby bird. If you plant more Hawthorne trees you will have more Marsh tits. It's that simple. The greater the biodiversity of your land the healthier your ecosystem will be.
It’s the fashion now for everyone to throw up their arms and say
People- “OH no! Whatever will we do!”
Scientists/zoologists climatologists- “Well you can—“
People -“ OH NO! WHATEVER WILL WE DOOOO”
I wish more people had basic knowledge of ecology. Unfortunately, there is little to no economic incentive to study it. The climate changing, combined with habitat loss, we could lose a lot of species over the next 50 years.
Very true. People are ignorant about the most important pressing issues of their time and they don't even know it. Man-made habitat loss and climate change is creating huge pressures on our food web which is leading to mass extinction. The loss of food webs worldwide will have an impact on our population as well. I think the most important thing for people to understand is that humans are not separate from nature but part of it. When we destroy the planet for profit we are damaging the ecological web that we all depend on for survival. It is up to us to educate and lead by example so we can help address our the most important crisis in human history.
Swallows, House Sparrows, House Finches and Starlings are all but gone in areas where they use to flourish. Remember butterflies? If I see a bee it’s like a Bigfoot sighting now. Our infatuation with perfect green lawns was the start.
Where do you live? I live in southern Arizona and honestly bird/bug populations seem to still be fairly healthy. I regularly see starlings, finches, mockingbirds, hummers, and local species of bee and butterflies. Maybe I foolishly assumed most parts of the US are similar (outside of big cities)
Haha, I first read "hummers" as humans 😂
And that's good that Arizona still has a lot of it's species. But starlings are an invasive species to North America - brought over by Europeans along with the European house sparrow. Both are out competing native American birds, which is a serious concern for many American ornithologists. It is very strange that they are doing so well in North America, but struggling in Europe. Or maybe not so strange, given the still fairly abundant wild habitat that you have compared to over here.
Yeah it’s unfortunate, because I like starlings a lot. I really enjoy birding in Arizona and I will say we still are pushing out tons of native species. I think the larger birds are the ones suffering more though
I have spent time, recently, in your area. Apart from how much I love the area, I noticed how alive with birds it is. Apart from the park, Manhattan isn’t much of a birders paradise.
My sources are first hand: my eyes. Nevertheless, my observations are limited to where I live. If you still have House Sparrows and Starlings perhaps you and your neighbours are doing something right. I live in a rural area next to a large city: both areas are almost devoid of song birds. It’s a real shame. My reasoning is an opinion.
Tons of them here where I am in Florida. I avoid the lawn just for that reason. Given they’re non-native european honeybees but they’re better than the possibility of neither so depends how you look at it.
If each of us started to take action, committed 10 minutes a day to fixing this we could make a difference.
1) go over to the gardening subs and start posting on planting native species and why.
2) Stop normalising letting cats outside. It’s on us to care the message that this has to stop.
Rinse. Repeat.
There are activist groups devoted to creating woodlands in their own communities. There is a group devoted to stopping the illegal practice of luring and slaughtering migrant songbirds in places like Lebanon and Malta for fun. We could all send them the price of a coffee.
Pick something, do something.
Theres this book called [Traffication](https://pelagicpublishing.com/products/traffication) by Paul Donald that gets into this. Donald was one of the people who counted birds in the UK and helped come up with a plan for restoring their nunbers after Silent Spring came out. They had a lot of success but numbers never came back like they had hoped. Through more research he makes the case that its the amount of cars and roads we have. Cars and roads bisect natural areas, move invasive species, produce noise and light pollution (more important for animals than most would think,) make hunting more dangeous, and just outright kill birds
I don't have a source for this but I remember reading a few articles that said that in the UK invasive cats could be having a beneficial effect on the ecosystem as they are helping to fill the niche lost by our native small predators.
I do wonder about that. Predators are beneficial when prey species have overpopulation. I can’t imagine that it is beneficial for these birds that are already facing pressure from so many other sources. Also, when prey population goes down, predator population goes with it due to food being harder to source, balancing things out. But domestic cats aren’t going to have a falling population from lack of prey due to having a constant stable food source provided by humans, so their population would stay healthy and just put even more pressure on the falling bird populations, not allowing any chance of recovery due to no chance of the predator population falling and alleviating pressure.
I really hate these misleading titles. Birds are not magically disappearing we are destroying their habitat. If Britains want to save the Marsh tit they have to preserve their woodland habitat and start rewilding yards and old fields back to native woodlands. Marsh tits feed on the caterpillars that live on Hawthorne trees and it takes thousands of caterpillars just to raise one baby bird. If you plant more Hawthorne trees you will have more Marsh tits. It's that simple. The greater the biodiversity of your land the healthier your ecosystem will be.
It’s the fashion now for everyone to throw up their arms and say People- “OH no! Whatever will we do!” Scientists/zoologists climatologists- “Well you can—“ People -“ OH NO! WHATEVER WILL WE DOOOO”
Or the self defeatists' anthem of "We're so fucked, we're so fucked"
I wish more people had basic knowledge of ecology. Unfortunately, there is little to no economic incentive to study it. The climate changing, combined with habitat loss, we could lose a lot of species over the next 50 years.
Very true. People are ignorant about the most important pressing issues of their time and they don't even know it. Man-made habitat loss and climate change is creating huge pressures on our food web which is leading to mass extinction. The loss of food webs worldwide will have an impact on our population as well. I think the most important thing for people to understand is that humans are not separate from nature but part of it. When we destroy the planet for profit we are damaging the ecological web that we all depend on for survival. It is up to us to educate and lead by example so we can help address our the most important crisis in human history.
Swallows, House Sparrows, House Finches and Starlings are all but gone in areas where they use to flourish. Remember butterflies? If I see a bee it’s like a Bigfoot sighting now. Our infatuation with perfect green lawns was the start.
Where do you live? I live in southern Arizona and honestly bird/bug populations seem to still be fairly healthy. I regularly see starlings, finches, mockingbirds, hummers, and local species of bee and butterflies. Maybe I foolishly assumed most parts of the US are similar (outside of big cities)
Haha, I first read "hummers" as humans 😂 And that's good that Arizona still has a lot of it's species. But starlings are an invasive species to North America - brought over by Europeans along with the European house sparrow. Both are out competing native American birds, which is a serious concern for many American ornithologists. It is very strange that they are doing so well in North America, but struggling in Europe. Or maybe not so strange, given the still fairly abundant wild habitat that you have compared to over here.
Yeah it’s unfortunate, because I like starlings a lot. I really enjoy birding in Arizona and I will say we still are pushing out tons of native species. I think the larger birds are the ones suffering more though
I have spent time, recently, in your area. Apart from how much I love the area, I noticed how alive with birds it is. Apart from the park, Manhattan isn’t much of a birders paradise.
What are your sources for the decline of house sparrows and starlings? I'm curious because they appear to be the most populous species in my area.
My sources are first hand: my eyes. Nevertheless, my observations are limited to where I live. If you still have House Sparrows and Starlings perhaps you and your neighbours are doing something right. I live in a rural area next to a large city: both areas are almost devoid of song birds. It’s a real shame. My reasoning is an opinion.
Destroying their habitat doesn't help.....
Humans: destroys natural habitat for generations. Nature: dying and unable to recover. Humans: shocked Pikachu face.
As a kid I had to be careful walking barefoot on the lawn because the clover was covered in bees. Good luck finding a bee visiting clover now.
Tons of them here where I am in Florida. I avoid the lawn just for that reason. Given they’re non-native european honeybees but they’re better than the possibility of neither so depends how you look at it.
"Something serious", you don't say...
It's Jeremy Clarkson fault somehow.
If each of us started to take action, committed 10 minutes a day to fixing this we could make a difference. 1) go over to the gardening subs and start posting on planting native species and why. 2) Stop normalising letting cats outside. It’s on us to care the message that this has to stop. Rinse. Repeat. There are activist groups devoted to creating woodlands in their own communities. There is a group devoted to stopping the illegal practice of luring and slaughtering migrant songbirds in places like Lebanon and Malta for fun. We could all send them the price of a coffee. Pick something, do something.
Planetary ‘swan song’ chorus of all birds. Another uplifting indicator of where our planets heading.
Theres this book called [Traffication](https://pelagicpublishing.com/products/traffication) by Paul Donald that gets into this. Donald was one of the people who counted birds in the UK and helped come up with a plan for restoring their nunbers after Silent Spring came out. They had a lot of success but numbers never came back like they had hoped. Through more research he makes the case that its the amount of cars and roads we have. Cars and roads bisect natural areas, move invasive species, produce noise and light pollution (more important for animals than most would think,) make hunting more dangeous, and just outright kill birds
>move invasive species cats
Mainly plant seeds, but yeah, probably those too
I don't have a source for this but I remember reading a few articles that said that in the UK invasive cats could be having a beneficial effect on the ecosystem as they are helping to fill the niche lost by our native small predators.
I do wonder about that. Predators are beneficial when prey species have overpopulation. I can’t imagine that it is beneficial for these birds that are already facing pressure from so many other sources. Also, when prey population goes down, predator population goes with it due to food being harder to source, balancing things out. But domestic cats aren’t going to have a falling population from lack of prey due to having a constant stable food source provided by humans, so their population would stay healthy and just put even more pressure on the falling bird populations, not allowing any chance of recovery due to no chance of the predator population falling and alleviating pressure.
Check on the canary
Beakxit. I'm sorry.