Connecticut's native birds are suffering slow, steady population declines

Many of Connecticut's native birds "are suffering slow, steady population declines" and at least one species appears headed for extinction, according to a new report released Monday by the Connecticut Audubon Society. Avian experts are forecasting that the Saltmarsh Sparrow is facing "likely extinction" during next half century. Blue-winged warblers, Brown Thrashers, Fields Sparrows, Clapper Rails and other species are losing an estimated 5 percent of their Connecticut populations each year, the report warned. The report's most dire warnings concern the Saltmarsh Sparrow, a bird that recent studies indicate has seen population declines of about 9 percent a year throughout its range in the past decade. "This is the equivalent to losing three out of every four Saltmarsh Sparrows since the 1990s,"Chris S. Elphick, a conservation biologist with the University of Connecticut, wrote in one of the articles in the new State of the Birds report.
Source: Hartford Courant, November 21, 2016
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-ct-birds-future-mostly-gloom…