National Audubon, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, American Ornithological Association, American Bird Conservancy, and fifteen other avian scientific and conservation organizations collaborate in the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Every few years the group produces a “State of the Birds” report. For anyone interested in North American avian wildlife, time spent reading the twenty pages of the recently released State of the Birds 2025 is time well-spent.
“This 2025 edition of the State of the Birds report is a status assessment of the health of the nation’s bird populations, delivered to the American people by scientists from U.S. bird conservation groups.”
Scan the graph in the Executive Summary – State of the Birds 2025 to see at a glance that the status assessment does not present a happy picture. The time span depicted begins in 1970 and shows declines in most categories of birds. That the numbers of dabbling and diving ducks increased 24% in that period is a testimony to the success of long-term conservation initiatives, particularly protecting their breeding habitat. (Sea ducks, such as scoters and eiders, in contrast, have declined.) Other groups of birds have not had such long-term focused conservation attention.
The report points out that we know conservation measures work to reverse avian population declines. The increase in many duck populations shows that, though wetland losses to development and agriculture in more recent years threaten to reverse the positive trend. For many species we know what to do, but we need to step up the pace and scale of conservation action. The suddenly changed national political situation makes the challenge all the greater. Potential undoing of regulations protecting wetlands and halting of grant programs to buy and restore waterfowl habitat are among the threats that would set back progress at a time when we need to be doing the opposite. Skagit Land Trust’s Barney Lake Conservation Area at Mount Vernon’s eastern edge illustrates what has been possible. The area protects almost 400 acres, much of it wetland harboring hundreds and hundreds of wintering ducks, geese, and swans. The piece-by-piece acquisition and restoration of that property is the result of combined private generosity, public grants, partnerships among non-profit groups and local governments, and volunteer sweat equity. It can be done.
The successive State of the Birds reports followed a 2019 study published in the journal Science sounding the alarm. It showed a net loss of 3 billion birds in North America in the past 50 years, 29% of the 1970 bird population. What can we as individuals who care about birds and other wildlife do in the face of such an alarming prospect? First and foremost, and it goes without saying, be an active citizen. Along with that, support local and regional conservation organizations protecting and restoring bird habitat. I’ve already mentioned Skagit Land Trust, on whose board I serve. Three Skagit Audubon members founded the Trust over 30 years ago, and it now has protected over 12,000 acres of habitat in Skagit County and many miles of river and marine shoreline. Skagit Land Trust is a member organization and continually needs donors and volunteers for the restoration, education, and other work it does (https://www.skagitlandtrust.org/). Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group (SFEG) is another local organization focused on restoring habitat which benefits birds and as well as their primary focus on fish (Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group - Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group). SFEG continually needs volunteers to help with restoration planting. Another action to take is urging your state legislators to fund the implementation of Washington’s State Wildlife Action Plan, which is currently being updated (State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife). The plan focuses on species in decline in our state. When counties, cities, and towns update their Comprehensive Plans, as is also happening currently, read the goals and policies that could affect wildlife habitat and urge the relevant local government to preserve and restore the habitat birds and other creatures require.
And you can help by simply birding with a purpose; i.e., by using your bird finding and identification skills to contribute data scientists need to discern trends in bird populations. Input your sightings into eBird. Participate in Christmas Bird Counts, National Audubon’s Climate Watch, the Breeding Bird Survey, Puget Sound Bird Observatory’s Wetland Secretive Bird Monitoring Project and Puget Sound Seabird Survey. That’s an incomplete list! And, even if you’re not a waterfowl hunter required to buy a Duck Stamp, go to your Post Office and buy one every year anyway: Federal Duck Stamp | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “Since 1934, over $1.1 billion dollars have been raised from sales of Federal Duck Stamps conserving over 6 million acres of land within the National Wildlife Refuge System.” That fund-raising program is one of the reasons dabbling and diving duck populations have done so much better than other groups of birds. Let’s hope this successful and efficient program survives. You see, there is a lot we as individuals and as citizens can do.
Other Issues
For information on other conservation issues Skagit Audubon is following, please go to the Conservation Notes on the chapter website at https://www.skagitaudubon.org/conservation-notes-letters.
Yellow-rumped Warbler by Rosi Jansen