Major Threats to Bird Populations

We humans have been wiping out bird species like it’s our job for a long time. It’s predicted that people drove hundreds of bird species to extinction. Mainly human activities are the reason for this bad situation. What do you think are the major threats that birds face? Think for a moment. Meanwhile, I’m providing a few possible answers. Pollution is the major reason for birds’ extinction worldwide. Industrialization, spreading cities, and massive wildfires are some other reasons that take part as threats. When looking for the causes of ongoing threats in a bird’s life, here are the top possible threats to birds.

• Agricultural expansion.

• Deforestation.

• Invasive Species.

• Hunting and Trapping.

• Climate changes.

Habitat destruction is a huge problem for bird species. There are four or five top threats related to this habitat destruction. Agriculture expansion, deforestation, invasive species, and climate change can destroy the habitats which belong to birds. Naturally, bird species diversified in different habitats such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other freshwater habitats. But humans have been particularly destructive to these habitats to fulfill social and economic purposes. Since the past, agriculture has been one of the leading methods of occupation for humans. Agriculture is spread massively all over the world. People have caused massive amounts of deforestation for agricultural and economic purposes. As a result of human activities, habitats for birds as well as other animals have been destroyed massively. Invasive species are the reason for over 70% of bird extinctions. Some bird species have to face threats from invasive species. Sometimes these invasive animals eat eggs or destroy nestlings of the native birds causing them to drive towards their extinction in no time.

Human activities have hugely influenced natural processes in the long run as well. Climate change is one of the threats to native birds as well as migratory bird species worldwide. Global warming is a big issue of climate-changing and it causes birds to vanish from their habitats. Studies record that the North American birds living closer to the North pole seem to face the most peril. Brooke Bateman, the Audubon report’s primary author who also leads the organization’s climate science team, says she was startled to realize that every single species she evaluated faced risks from climate change. Iconic birds are no exception. If Earth warms by 3 degrees Celsius, as predicted, Audubon estimates that 13 out of America’s 50 state birds might struggle to live in the states they represent during at least one season of the year.

Hunting or trapping is directly affecting birdlife. This causes birds to decline. Birds are killed for food(meat) or their body parts like feathers and structures like bills. When considering hunting, it is especially affected for migratory birds. Large amounts of migratory birds are killed during their long migration in the winter season. At least 500 bird species are directly threatened and named under Red-list due to hunting and trapping.

These are the top threats that birds are facing all over the world. Apart from that, more issues are occurring due to industrialization. Irresponsible plastic disposal and radiation are examples. There’s proof that birds are dying because of eating plastic materials and blocking the digestive tract. Also, birds are killed by exposure to radiation. These are some other problems that lead birds to extinction.

A significant number of birds have faced death and the rate is increasing year by year because of human schemes. We are the people who have the responsibility for taking actions and solving this nature’s problem so far. If not, we are losing our feathered friends forever.

- Rtr. Saumya Thathsarani -