Birds On The Wane

by Mike Stiles

Back in the "good old days," when there were still vast unexplored frontiers in this country, John James Audubon and many other biologists would collect their specimens to study with the blast of a shotgun. No one worried about it because of the incredible abundance of wildlife in the United States. It's a different story now, with many birds either extinct or nearly so, due to habitat loss or outright depredation.

The classic example in this country is the Passenger Pigeon. Flocks that numbered in the billions would darken the skies for hours as they passed overhead. Some of their decline was due to habitat loss as we deforested the woodlands for the farms and houses of the pioneers, but most were shot for food or sport. At one nesting site 50,000 birds were killed each day for five months. In 1857 the Ohio legislature determined that the birds needed no protection, and 57 years later the last Passenger Pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct. It was once widespread in the southeast, but required at least ten square miles of hardwood forest per pair of birds. Clear cut logging decimated those forests, leaving only isolated patches of trees. A video of a possible Ivory-billed in 2004 set off a firestorm of debate on the validity of the identification and that even questioned the motives of the discoverer. The sighting is currently considered invalid, and there is a $50,000 reward offered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for anyone who can lead a biologist to one of the birds.

The Eskimo Curlew was once one of the most abundant shorebirds in North America until millions of them were shot at the end of the 19th century. The last confirmed sighting of the bird was in the early 1960's. The Bachman's Warbler was last reported from South Carolina in 1988, and the last Dusky Seaside Sparrow died in protected habitat at Walt Disney World Resort in 1987.

The list goes on and on. But lest I paint a completely bleak picture, there are some success stories out there. Both the Peregrine Falcon and the Whooping Crane were put on the endangered species list and captive breeding programs were started. The crane's success has been slow, but numbers are increasing. The Peregrine Falcon has had great success, so much so that the bird is no longer considered endangered, and has been removed from the list.

In the early 1980's, only six California Condors remained in a small section of the Los Padres Forest in southern California. Their decline was due to loss of habitat, poaching and lead poisoning from hunter's bullets.  A heroic effort of study, often spending weeks at a time in that remote backcountry, and a captive breeding program at several zoos has raised the population to about 350, with about 180 birds in the wild in California, Arizona, and Baja California. While still not a viable population, there is hope that these immense birds can again freely roam in our wilderness.

I know what some of you are thinking— "Who cares? Who needs a Condor or a Red-legged Frog?" And I've seen the bumper stickers—"I love Spotted Owls, they taste like chicken." But the truth is that the loss of these animals indicates a serious and much deeper problem in the ecosystems in which they live. It's not just a cliché that everything is interconnected. It's actually true. When we cut down old growth forests and the Spotted Owl declines, we are also affecting the mammals, the other birds, the reptiles and amphibians, the insects, plants, fungi, and even the water and air quality of the region. And of course, ultimately, the human species.

Politicians at every level of government should also keep in mind the economics of protecting the environment (as if we need a "practical" reason to be environmentally conscious). It "pays" to have wild, open spaces. Americans spend many billions of dollars each year on travel, lodging, food, and equipment recreating in our national parks and open spaces. Personally, I just like to know there are wild, unaltered areas to explore, even if I don't happen to visit. But I'm just one of those environmental whackos you hear about.

Burrowing Owl on banner by Cleve Nash.