7 ms·

Birds have been in significant and will probably continue to decline due to human activity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_extinction https://en.wikipedia.

Birds have been in significant and will probably continue to decline due to human activity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_extinction The main drivers I think are plain habitat loss, pesticide use (associated decline in insect population), and large scale change in available food and climate. I think the easiest to address would be pesticide and herbicide use -- widely known to have other negative side effects, such as effect on bees, possible human effects, biodiversity loss, etc. Hopefully it can be replaced by techniques like crop diversification and maybe robotic/biological pest control.

hailk 7y ago
Biological pest control has always been practiced historically. It's always good to have frogs in the paddy fields. Insect eating birds for the most part tend to be omnivores, hence dangerous for crops as well, unfortunately. I'm not aware of any existing solutions that benefit both birds and farming. I would love to be proven wrong about this statement, but under most cases Farming and Birds are antithetical to each other.
mikorym 7y ago
Just by using pesticides and herbicides more precisely you can have a major remedial impact. Many farmers would apply either the wrong pesticide against an insect or at a stage that makes it less effective against its target. However, we have a myriad of weather data available, and together with insect life cycle data you can create a model that tells you 1) when to spray 2) the epicenter if applicable and 3) dynamic feedback as the weather changes. I have a early stage startup that has this as one of its long term goals. But to be honest there are other lower hanging fruit in agriculture that makes more sense to start with—the startup is more of an "idea" bank than a business at this point—and I won't be quitting a job in finance for a risky "smart farm" idea any time soon. EDIT: By the way, Johannesburg and Pretoria are bird paradises. There are even feral populations of lovebirds (indigenous to Namibia) that fly around outside my office as we speak.
est31 7y ago
Cats, as cute as they are, are a major contributor as well. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/cat-birds-australia/595048/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/cat-bird... > Feral cats on islands are responsible for at least 14% global bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions and are the principal threat to almost 8% of critically endangered birds, mammals, and reptiles. https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x
- rob74 7y ago
  While that paper singles out cats, any introduced mammal species (rats, foxes, dogs etc.) on an island with ground-nesting and/or flightless birds is a huge problem...
  - A_I 7y ago
    Yes, that's a massive issue in New Zealand. We have a programme called Predator Free 2050 aiming to address it. There are some very interesting organisations working on solutions, such as the Cacophony Project (https://cacophony.org.nz/ https://cacophony.org.nz/)
    - chiefalchemist 7y ago
      I added this up the thread, but here again so you don't miss it. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-end-of-cats-an-interview-with-the-new-zealand-economist-calling-to-eliminate-all-kitties/272474/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-end...
      - Kaiyou 7y ago
        What a madman. Cats > birds.
  - galangalalgol 7y ago
    Not just mammals. Fireants got most of the quail when they arrived in the woods I grew up in. Neighbors lost most of their guinea hens too. And rabbits got pretty scarce.
masklinn 7y ago
> The main drivers I think are plain habitat loss Fragmentation is also an issue people don't think enough about. You see percentages of forested ground and think "well that looks pretty good" but when you go check it out it's disparate strands with fields inbetween, or thin rows of trees a few meters wide. This means only "edge" species have a habitat, and even for them their domain is not really a boundary with a flux between different ecosystems anymore, they've got identical open areas on both sides. It also means the bigger species don't have the room to live there anymore.
- goda90 7y ago
  Going to public school in Wisconsin, I remember being taught about fragmentation and how it let brood parasites like cowbirds have better access to the nests they sneak their eggs into, which leads to the death of lots of chicks from other species. Wisconsin still has lots of forest, but with so many roads and fields cutting through them, they just can't support the same level of wildlife.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
TulliusCicero 7y ago
Habitat loss may be reversing now due to urbanization, as population growth has slowed (and largely stabilized or even declined in the developed world). I'm guessing as those little rural towns in Japan become increasingly abandoned, animals are moving in.

hailk 7y ago

Biological pest control has always been practiced historically. It's always good to have frogs in the paddy fields. Insect eating birds for the most part tend to be omnivores, hence dangerous for crops as well, unfortunately. I'm not aware of any existing solutions that benefit both birds and farming. I would love to be proven wrong about this statement, but under most cases Farming and Birds are antithetical to each other.

mikorym 7y ago

Just by using pesticides and herbicides more precisely you can have a major remedial impact. Many farmers would apply either the wrong pesticide against an insect or at a stage that makes it less effective against its target. However, we have a myriad of weather data available, and together with insect life cycle data you can create a model that tells you 1) when to spray 2) the epicenter if applicable and 3) dynamic feedback as the weather changes. I have a early stage startup that has this as one of its long term goals. But to be honest there are other lower hanging fruit in agriculture that makes more sense to start with—the startup is more of an "idea" bank than a business at this point—and I won't be quitting a job in finance for a risky "smart farm" idea any time soon. EDIT: By the way, Johannesburg and Pretoria are bird paradises. There are even feral populations of lovebirds (indigenous to Namibia) that fly around outside my office as we speak.

est31 7y ago

Cats, as cute as they are, are a major contributor as well. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/cat-birds-australia/595048/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/cat-bird... > Feral cats on islands are responsible for at least 14% global bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions and are the principal threat to almost 8% of critically endangered birds, mammals, and reptiles. https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x

rob74 7y ago
While that paper singles out cats, any introduced mammal species (rats, foxes, dogs etc.) on an island with ground-nesting and/or flightless birds is a huge problem...
- A_I 7y ago
  Yes, that's a massive issue in New Zealand. We have a programme called Predator Free 2050 aiming to address it. There are some very interesting organisations working on solutions, such as the Cacophony Project (https://cacophony.org.nz/ https://cacophony.org.nz/)
  - chiefalchemist 7y ago
    I added this up the thread, but here again so you don't miss it. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-end-of-cats-an-interview-with-the-new-zealand-economist-calling-to-eliminate-all-kitties/272474/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-end...
    - Kaiyou 7y ago
      What a madman. Cats > birds.
- galangalalgol 7y ago
  Not just mammals. Fireants got most of the quail when they arrived in the woods I grew up in. Neighbors lost most of their guinea hens too. And rabbits got pretty scarce.

masklinn 7y ago

> The main drivers I think are plain habitat loss Fragmentation is also an issue people don't think enough about. You see percentages of forested ground and think "well that looks pretty good" but when you go check it out it's disparate strands with fields inbetween, or thin rows of trees a few meters wide. This means only "edge" species have a habitat, and even for them their domain is not really a boundary with a flux between different ecosystems anymore, they've got identical open areas on both sides. It also means the bigger species don't have the room to live there anymore.

goda90 7y ago
Going to public school in Wisconsin, I remember being taught about fragmentation and how it let brood parasites like cowbirds have better access to the nests they sneak their eggs into, which leads to the death of lots of chicks from other species. Wisconsin still has lots of forest, but with so many roads and fields cutting through them, they just can't support the same level of wildlife.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Habitat loss may be reversing now due to urbanization, as population growth has slowed (and largely stabilized or even declined in the developed world). I'm guessing as those little rural towns in Japan become increasingly abandoned, animals are moving in.