wild thing
Oh, you haven’ t heard...?
The state of things with our feather friends
By Genevieve Wall
Why? Since the 1970s, major environmental policy changes have been launched: the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the banning of DDT( the pesticide responsible for the decline of bald eagles and osprey) in 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973. But at the same time, habitat loss and degradation have led to continued pressure on birds. Pollution and development fragment habitat. The increase in extreme and unpredictable weather that levels homes, floods communities, and burns forest affects birds as well as humans. And climate change uncouples the traditional timing of natural events from the season in a way that can disrupt birds’ food sources, nesting, and migration behavior.
What’ s been happening to the birds since 2019?
An hour before sunrise, and the world is far from still. Even as the edges of the eastern horizon barely hint at color, the dawn is full of song. The liquidy laser fire of a Northern Cardinal, cheery cheeriup-cheerio of an American Robin, sputtering melodic flourish of the Song Sparrow, and so many more migratory and resident bird species contribute to a symphony of sound.
Why do birds sing? Song isn’ t random— it’ s a critical part of how birds communicate and survive. Songs define and defend territorial boundaries. Songs attract mates. And the other myriad sounds birds make— chips, whistles, alarms— also serve a purpose, whether to check in on other birds or raise the alert about a nearby predator. Marveling at the complexity, behavior, and beauty of bird song can bring feelings of awe and wonder. But at the same time, there can be feelings of loss.
Sometimes, tuning in to the natural world means grieving losses that many people don’ t notice. Even as I drink in the dawn chorus, there is a part of me that twinges with melancholy. In 2019, a study called“ Decline of North American Avifauna” was published in the journal Science. The researchers found that, since 1970, scientists estimate we have lost a staggering 2.9 billion birds. It’ s been five years since that study was published, and we are still losing birds. Our dawn chorus is quieter than it used to be, our skies emptier. Within a single human lifetime, this quiet population collapse has been unfolding all around us.
To answer this question, let’ s turn to the State of the Birds. The North American Bird Conservation Initiative releases a new State of the Birds report every few years, with the most recent edition dated to March 2025. The report breaks down birds by groups into habitat and taxonomy to understand how populations are changing. In the Eastern Forests area( which includes Maryland), obligate forest species— those that depend on the health of our Eastern Forests— have declined 27 %. Within the 27 Eastern Forest species they compared, six species had increasing population numbers, three species were holding steady, and 18 species had decreasing populations. In comparison to other groups of birds, the decline of Eastern Forest species sets them around the middle
34 plenty I summer growing 2025