Missing: Nearly 3 billion birds that used to live in North America
by Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
Sep 19, 2019
4 minutes
North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, according to a new analysis of bird survey and radar data.
The sharp decline, described in a study in the journal Science, is not just bad for birds. It also bodes ill for the ecosystems those birds inhabit, and points to a need for action to halt and perhaps reverse the drop, scientists said.
"Three billion was a pretty astounding number for us," said lead author Kenneth Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at Cornell University and American Bird Conservancy.
Many animals are threatened with extinction because of human activity,
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