Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to new research. Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role.
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. “What we found is that any metric of agricultural intensity was always the best predictor of acceleration of the decline.”
33 Comments
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 176d
When you kill all the bugs, you kill all the birds who eat bugs, too?
UNFATHOMABLE
CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone · 27 pts · 176d
Also people that let their cats outside are part of this problem.
robocall@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 176d
Cats are the cutest, most precious little cuddly things. But they need to all be indoors. Every single one of them.
SuiXi3D@fedia.io · 11 pts · 176d
Mine stays inside for just this reason.
CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 176d
Yep, same. Plus they live healthier lives indoors and are far less likely to be injured.
saltesc@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 176d
In contrast my dogs have become pals with our neighbours up in the back tree.
Every afternoon around the same time, the birds land on the back porch and call them out,. Even if the dogs are snoozing they instantly get up and sprint outside, then a round of chasey-swoopy happens for a few mins before they all come up and sit on the back porch together for a while. This happens every day about an hour before sunset for a couple years now.
Cool birds too. If I go out there and sit with everyone, the bravest bird some times perches on my arm with the temptation a small bit of ham.
LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 176d
Any idea what kind of bird they are?
saltesc@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 175d
Yeah, but they're native to this region and I've already had one family member track me down through Lemmy recently lol.
They're comparable to a crow in size and intelligence. But unlike a crow they have a beautiful song as well. They're very social too
So, yeah, it's very sad to see one get taken out by someone's housecat.
LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 175d
Oh, I didn't mean to dox you and your family 😅 very cool! Glad you get to have fun with them!
atropa@piefed.social · -5 pts · 176d
CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 176d
My cats have a blast inside and don't hunt birds to extinction or get run over by cars. I'm fine with it, and so are they.
cv_octavio@piefed.ca · 1 pts · 175d
atropa@piefed.social · 2 pts · 176d
Eximius@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 175d
Inconceivable!
nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 173d
_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 176d
We are a walking, talking extinction event: Welcome to the Holocene Era!
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 176d
Part of me tries to rationalize the current state of the world as a last gasp by those who know we're all doomed and can't change anything. The elite and powerful. And instead of trying to fix anything, they've all decided they're gonna go balls to the wall before it's all fucked beyond repair.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 176d
And they think they want to live forever too. Like Zuck with his bunkers, who tf is going to take care of him when it all goes to shit? Money isn't going to be worth anything. Maybe that's why he trained for MMA, lol.
smokin_shinobi@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 176d
That dude is going to get blasted by his head of security before they run out of caviar.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net · 2 pts · 176d
He's gonna pull a Ted Faro
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 176d
We will end up as an oily radioactive smear in the geological record. And that’s fine with me.
_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 176d
Seems like that would just piss off 99% of the population and ensure those responsible a terrible fate once billions of desperate humans get so fed up they'll become capable of pretty much anything. I'm guessing a lot of these people are already so old they don't care or so insulated the don't understand the danger they're putting themselves in.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 176d
Unfortunately, they did it. They won if that was their goal. We could still get vengeance but we're not preventing anything.
reddig33@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 176d
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 176d
All the insects that are gone
Cats!
Territory disappearing faster
Pollution
Insecticides / pesticides
It's a wonder there are any birds left
We're all fucked :)
mr_anny@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 176d
I think this decline concerns only the nice birdies.
Definitely not them flying rat ones like Black Geese, Gulls and Feral Pigeons. They seem like multiplying. And shitting everything.
whelk@retrolemmy.com · 6 pts · 176d
The next time my cat glares at me for keeping her inside, I'll point her to this and argue that birds already have enough problems. She can chase me and the string around the house to get the hunties out of her system
6stringringer@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 176d
Ya’ll ain’t heard yet? Birds aren’t real.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 176d
I've got nine laying hens and will probably get a few more this year. I'm doing my part.
Also I have all sorts of bird feeders. I've got one of those ones that sits in the window, and a damn squirrel keeps on coming into it and taking all the seeds. My dogs growl at him...and he fucking growls back, the little shit.
It's an ongoing feud.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 176d
Make the seeds spicy. The squirrel will stay away after an attempt or two and the birds don't have the receptors for the spice to bother them.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 176d
Oh that's brilliant. I should've thought of that. I usually rub my pumpkins with Frank's Red Hot (I put that shit on everything) to keep the squirrels from eating them.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 176d
Cayenne Pepper is usually the go to for birdseed. Have a video cam you can point out there? It would have led to hilarious footage if I had thought to record.
Yankee_Self_Loader@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 175d
Damn those windmills!
/s if that wasn’t clear
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 176d
Start reducing cat feeding people?
LoremIpsumGenerator@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 176d
Birds became vegan, counting calories and pumping in the gym. They aint gone they adapted.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 176d
There is still an active bird influenza killing birds.