There's an alarming decline in chimney swifts in North America

There's an alarming decline in chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica), the so-called "flying cigars" that on summer nights eat about one-third their weight in insects. Numbers of the elusive birds are dropping in Connecticut by about 4 percent annually, experts say, with the possibility they could all but disappear from the state in a few decades unless the trend is reversed. Other states are reporting dramatic declines, too. In Minnesota, for example, the bird's numbers have dropped about 48 percent in the last four years, according to the Minnesota Audubon Society. And Canadian biologists are reporting a "dramatic" decline in numbers, too, with populations there sinking 30 percent in the last 15 years. Experts note that many other North American insectivore bird species, such as nighthawks Chordeiles minor and whip-poor-wills Caprimulgus vociferus, are also in dramatic decline, which would also point to a lack of food as a possible cause for their difficulties.

Source: NewsTimes.com, by John Burgeson, February 28, 2010
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