Bird Conservation

After researching many topics on wildlife conservation it seems that cute and cuddly receive the most attention.  Birds (and plants) seem to fall on the back burner of conservation.  Birds also face issues with habitat loss and degradation from logging and agriculture.  I know in the area of Ohio that I live in, I see less and less of the many species of woodpeckers.  While searching, I found many organizations that focus solely on bird conservation and are broken down into different categories of birds, i.e. birds of prey, migratory, and the like.  It seems that the main reason behind birds being listed as endangered is due to DDT, a pesticide used for agriculture.  However, government officials recognized DDT as an issue and banned to product in the 1970’s.  Unfortunately, some species could not recover and are still listed as endangered or have since gone extinct.  One species that comes to mind is the American Bald Eagle which has recovered and is no longer listed as endangered.

In addition to the restrictions that the Endangered Species Act puts on hunters and poachers in regards to any species red listed*, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act also helps with adding more regulations.  The Migratory Bird Conservation Act was initiated in 1929 to preserve any area of land and water that migratory birds visit.  Members of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission work alongside the local authorities to conduct investigations, maintain refuges, and help with conservation education.  (Information from www.fws.gov).    

*Red listed means that the species was listed as endangered, threatened, or at risk under the IUCN Red List.

 Since I am highlighting bird conservation this week, I wanted to talk about one species of bird that once faced extinction.  The peregrine falcon was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1999 when it was completely removed from the list.  The falcon has made great recovery and continues to inhabit every continent except Antarctica.  Peregrine falcons are considered the fastest flying bird in the world and can drive at 200 miles per hour!  The reason behind their decrease in numbers was due to habitat loss but mostly due to the use of DDT.  DDT is a pesticide that causes egg shells to be thin which causes the shells to break early and the offspring cannot survive.  However, DDT was banned in the 1970’s and the falcon has since come back from near extinction. 

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/peregrine_falcon/id/ac

The above site is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which helped to develop EBird.  EBird is an online community engagement tool which allows citizens to bird watch and report sittings for other bird watchers and researcher.  The website gives identification facts, photos, and call clips to help citizen identify the correct bird.