Climate Change Could Wipe Out Half Of All North American Bird Species

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
More than half of the bird species in North America, including the bald eagle and the official birds of eight US states, are being seriously threatened by global climate change, the National Audubon Society revealed in a new report published on Tuesday.
According to the study, 126 species will lose at least half of their current ranges by 2050, and will have no chance to relocate if global warming continues on its current trajectory. An additional 188 species will experience more than 50 percent range loss by 2080, and some of these 314 total species include several not previously considered at risk.
Numerous extinctions are possible unless worldwide temperature increases are stopped, the authors said. The research, which took seven years to complete, is the first to conduct a detailed analysis of the impact to 588 types of birds in both the breeding and non-breeding season across the continental US and Canada, said Doyle Rice of USA Today.
“It’s a punch in the gut,” said lead investigator and Audubon Chief Scientist Gary Langham. “The greatest threat our birds face today is global warming. That’s our unequivocal conclusion after seven years of painstakingly careful and thorough research. Global warming threatens the basic fabric of life on which birds – and the rest of us – depend, and we have to act quickly and decisively if we are going to avoid catastrophe for them and for us.”
“Right now, about a third of all bird species in the US are in decline,” Steve Holmer of the American Bird Conservancy, whose group contributed to the report, told Jane O’Brien of BBC News. “The decline points to a very broad-scale problem where we’re seeing habitat loss and a variety of threats. We’re particularly concerned about the birds that live in deserts and grasslands in the West.”
Those birds, which include the sage grouse, live in regions where there is a tremendous amount of oil and gas development, which Holmer said has hampered conservation efforts. Coastal birds such as the ruddy turnstones and piping plovers are also endangered or at risk of becoming so, and in Hawaii, 10 different types of birds have become extinct in the past four decades and all remaining 33 endemic avian species are in danger, O’Brien added.
“Among the most threatened species are the three-toed woodpecker, the northern hawk owl, the northern gannet, Baird’s sparrow, the rufous hummingbird and the trumpeter swan, the report said,” noted Felicity Barringer of the New York Times. Likewise, state birds such as Maryland’s Baltimore Oriole, Louisiana’s Brown Pelican, Utah’s California Gull, Vermont’s Hermit Thrush and Minnesota’s Common Loon may be in danger due to global warming.
The study, which was funded in part by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is based on estimates of the effects of climate change in 2050 and 2080 compiled by the United Nations, as well as the Audubon Society’s Christmas bird count and a second survey of breeding birds launched by the federal government in 1914. The authors said that its findings have numerous implications for both conservation policy and future environmental research.
“Common sense will tell you that with these kinds of findings, it’s hard to believe we won’t lose some species to extinction,” David Yarnold, the president of the National Audubon Society, told Felicity Barringer of the New York Times on Monday. “How many? We honestly don’t know. We don’t know which ones are going to prove heroically resilient.”
“Millions of people across the country will take this threat personally because birds matter to them,” he added. “For bird lovers, this issue transcends nasty political posturing; it’s a bird issue. And we know that when we do the right things for birds, we do the right things for people too. Everyone can do something, from changing the plants in their backyard to working at the community and state level to protect the places birds will need to survive and promote clean energy. We are what hope looks like to a bird.”
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National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region, Revised Edition

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region