20 hours Ago By David Ono
Meet Mochi, the tiniest member of David Ono's family with an enormous personality. He's a parrot who, unless he's enjoying a day at the spa, is always on the move. Unfortunately, birds are facing a rapid decline.
With 3 billion birds lost since 1970, their survival is threatened by habitat loss, pesticides and human activity. UCLA Professor Travis Longcore explained that loss of birds was just in the U.S.
A recent study paints a devastating picture, identifying another 70 species that have declined by more than half since then. This data comes from one of the most comprehensive studies conducted by scientists from seven institutions. While the decline affects all bird species, the majority of the losses come from just twelve families, including sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and especially finches.
Longcore cites habitat loss and overexploitation as key reasons for these bird deaths. "Pesticides, agricultural practices, hazards during migration, and direct mortality from human actions all contribute," he explained. Dr.
Allison Shultz of the Natural History Museum of LA attributes the extinction of certain woodpecker species to European settlers' arrival. "They cut down all of the forests, so these woodpeckers had nowhere to live anymore," she said. Shultz highlights other birds lost to our world, such as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Carolina Parakeet, both now extinct.
The U.S. even had a bird resembling a penguin, called the Great Auk, which is now gone as well.
An incredible characteristic of birds is their ability to warn us before they go extinct. For example, the Nassau Booby, typically found in tropical climates, was spotted in California for the first time recently. Scientists believe it came here due to warming ocean temperatures, looking for food.
Its presence is a message: we're not only killing them; we're killing ourselves. Like the canaries in coal mines, birds act as indicators of the health of our environment. If the canaries passed out due to low oxygen, miners would feel the effects soon after.
Birds are sensitive to environmental changes and can tell us a lot about where we are. So, it's not just Mochi - all birds have something important to say. We need to sit still long enough and listen.
To quote the study's author, the staggering loss of so many birds "suggests the very fabric of North America's ecosystem is unraveling." Birds are nature's alarm and it's sad that we are losing them. More importantly, if we don't heed their warning and get out of the mine, we are next.
A recent study reveals the largest mass die-off of a single species in modern history: 4 million murres suddenly died in Alaska after an extreme heat wave caused warming ocean temperatures. This is a blatant reminder that the problem is not only bad, but it's getting worse. We have to do a better job of protecting each other, as we are all connected.
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