3 Billion Birds Have Vanished from North America

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 hour ago, Bevo said:

Have any of the missing 3 billion birds been found yet?

Not gonna say it's aliens, buuuut....  it's aliens...

[Zwylde 812]

20 hours ago, Bevo said:

Have any of the missing 3 billion birds been found yet?

Actually, yes.  They can easily be found at dusk at every grocery store parking lot in Texas.  The researchers obviously did not look there.

[ImissWallyPryor 9,046]

On 9/22/2019 at 10:10 PM, Ted Dantzler said:

"Domesticated" cats have been slaying birds for thousands of years. I'm guessing the real reason for the reduction is pesticides/loss of habitat.

In fact I'm going to wager there were more cats running around killing freely 50 years ago than there are now. We have a farm on the high plains and there are always around 10 barn cats that hang around the place, with the decrease in the number of individual farms over the last 50 years I'm guessing the killer farm cat population has decreased significantly. 

I agree. Habitat loss or reduction in food sources are almost always more of an issue than predation or over hunting. Directly or indirectly. There has been a reduction of insects due in large part to a reduction of flowering plants because of cultivation of billions of acres of corn, soybeans, etc. Grasslands - as opposed to crop lands - are a major habitat for many bird species, and I don’t imagine most human or livestock crops are a major source of seed for those birds not accustomed to feeding on insects. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by ImissWallyPryor

[El Diablo 4,232]

If humans can hunt critters to extinction and near extinction it wouldn't surprise me a bit if we inadvertently created a scenario where one of our parasitic but predatory pals, the cat, was able to do major and similar damage to another co-inhabitant, the birds.

I prefer to believe that this is the larger contributor to the bird loss because if it IS due to lack of food then we're all going to have to suffer for years to come with the "feed the birds", "10 million starving birds in America" talk. And those people are going to just be insufferable.

 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

10 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

I agree. Habitat loss or reduction in food sources are almost always more of an issue than predation or over hunting. Directly or indirectly. There has been a reduction of insects due in large part to a reduction of flowering plants because of cultivation of billions of acres of corn, soybeans, etc. Grasslands - as opposed to crop lands - are a major habitat for many bird species, and I don’t imagine most human or livestock crops are a major source of seed for those birds not accustomed to feeding on insects. 

Add the chemical soups being layed down on millions of lawns, and all the golf courses around the country.

[Armybrat 40,857]

One of the not missing billions of birds shit on my brand new Honda the other day. Fuck him.

[Underdog 28,755]

Minnesota Fats would've just bought a new one. 

[Armybrat 40,857]

But I am a shitty pool player. Sold my table in 1976.