Wetland birds

Although the Everglades National Park is no longer subject to hunting, the unnatural distribution and quality of water has contributed to the decline of several bird species devaluing the park’s association with 350 different species of feathered creatures. “While a few species seem to be rebounding, others, such as the roseate spoonbill, are continuing their downward spiral,” said Larry Perez, a member of the South Florida Natural Resources Center’s Science Communications Outreach, the largest science center of the National Park Service.The most drastic and recent drop of all is that of the roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). With the worst drop in breeding season in Florida Bay in over 40 years, the species is disappearing. Florida Bay takes up one-third of the Everglades. As wading birds, like the popular ibis of the Everglades, these animals have long legs for wading in the water to catch their fish. In the shallow water, the spoonbill lowers its partially opened bill and snaps it shut once a small fish or source of food has triggered its sensitivity. Fish are no longer concentrated in small shallow pools, leaving the spoonbills and other wading birds hungry and fending for survival.

One of the nation’s largest and most important wading bird breeding areas—south Florida, which includes Everglades National Park—has seen wading bird nesting plummet 28 percent below 2013 levels and about 18 percent below the nine-year average for the area. According to the South Florida Wading Bird Report from the South Florida Water Management District, an estimated 34,714 wading bird nests were initiated in south Florida during the 2014 nesting season (December 2013–July 2014), a significant drop from last year’s estimate of 48,291 nests and well below the average of the last nine years—42,782 nests.

An analysis of bird sightings logged during the Mumbai bird races held between 2005 and 2014 has revealed a decline in their numbers across various habitats. Bird sightings in the forests have dropped by 50% from 112 in 2005 to 77 last year. Likewise, grass-shrub-agriculture habitats have witnessed a dip from 102 to 89 during the same period, while only 68 birds were recorded in coastal wetlands in 2014, compared to 91 in 2005. According to the data, the total number of bird species spotted across six locations has nosedived from 277 in 2005 to 225 last year, with a significant drop in terms of average sightings and sighting frequency of birds at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Karnala Bird Sanctuary and Uran wetlands.

A decline in small herons and egrets that nest and forage among the Everglades wetlands and tree islands could mean work to restore the troubled ecosystem is not moving fast enough. An annual survey by the South Florida Water Management District released Thursday found that in 2014 the overall number of nests in and around refuges, wildlife sanctuaries and water conservation areas was down by 60 percent — 28 percent lower than in 2013. The drop in Everglades nests for little blue herons (Egretta caerulea), tricolored herons (Egretta tricolor) and snowy egrets (Egretta thula) was particularly troubling: nests that numbered over 1,000 a decade ago were down to about 130 last year. Biologists monitor the birds because their health is so closely tied to Everglades hydrology. When the birds do well, the ecosystem is in good shape.

When they’re not dining on the population explosions of caterpillars, they eat other insects, frogs, lizards, crickets, cicadas and other streamside dwellers. They’ve almost vanished from the Southwest — including Arizona. So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to list the wide-ranging, quickly-disappearing, stream-loving western yellow-billed cuckcoo (Coccyzus americanus) as an endangered species — likely adding one more layer of protection for — and restrictions on — streams in Rim Country. The federal government has proposed listing 80 protected streamside areas as critical habitat for the robin-sized bird, including Tonto Creek, the Verde River and other small streams like the East Verde, Fossil Creek and other Rim Country streams. Population surveys suggest the Western Cuckcoo continues to decline by about 1.5 percent annually. The estimated 15,000 breeding pairs in California in the late 19th century had declined to about 30 pairs by 1986. The thousands of pairs in Arizona had declined to 200 pairs in the same period. Biologists aren’t sure how many pairs remain in the southwest now.

The populations of most types of Finnish water fowl have been declining steadily and aggressively for many years, a new study shows. The results of the study, conducted by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL) and the Finnish Museum of Natural History, were published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research. Species of water bird whose numbers are swiftly dwindling include the widgeon (Anas penelope), the northern pintail (Anas acuta), the garganey (Anas querquedula), the tufted duck (Aythya fuligula), the pochard (Aythya ferina) and the coot (Fulica atra). Researchers say the drops are due to changes in the birds’ habitat; feeding becomes difficult for water fowl in hypertrophic or polluted waters. The research centre calls the population depletion a ”mystery,” since extra nutrients in the waters should make it easier for birds to feed. Shifts in the food chain may also affect the nutritional intake of young fowls, and small mammalian predators or other birds can eat the young of other species or destroy their nests.

Martha the passenger pigeon, who died 100 years ago, is being remembered this month as a prescient symbol of what can happen when man meets nature. A comprehensive new report finds that many more American bird species could meet the same fate. "Right now, about a third of all bird species in the US are in decline," says Steve Holmer of the American Bird Conservancy, one of the 23 organisations that contributed to the State of the Birds report, the most comprehensive review of bird trends and data ever undertaken in the US. "The decline points to a very broad-scale problem where we're seeing habitat loss and a variety of threats," he says. "We're particularly concerned about the birds that live in deserts and grasslands in the West, such as the sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). These lands are being heavily used and there's a great deal of oil and gas development, so it's created a huge conservation challenge." Birds living on the coasts are faring no better. Almost half of all shorebird species, such as ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres), red knots (Calidris canutus) and piping plovers (Charadrius melodus), are either endangered or at risk of becoming endangered.

The three species of wagtail that breed in the UK are suffering long-term declines, a study has revealed. Yellow wagtails, grey wagtails and pied wagtails (Motacilla alba) are all in decline, according to the annual breeding bird survey’s latest report, though conservationists say the reasons for the reductions are not clear. Yellow wagtails (Motacilla flava), farmland birds which migrate to sub-Saharan Africa, have seen numbers reduce by more than two-fifths (43%) between 1995 and 2012. Changes in agriculture are thought to be to blame for the yellow wagtail’s decline, but as it is a migrant, problems overseas cannot be ruled out, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said. Grey wagtails (Motacilla cinerea), a species which lives by rivers, has declined by almost a third (32%) since the survey started 20 years ago, while the familiar pied wagtail has seen declines of 11%. Both birds have shown rapid declines along rivers and canals, according to the waterways breeding bird survey, which focuses on river habitats, and pied wagtails have seen steeper declines in the river-based survey than in the general breeding bird survey which covers all habitats. This suggests there may be issues related to rivers which are affecting both species.