THREE BILLION BIRDS HAVE DISAPPEARED IN THE PAST 50 YEARS

     There are roughly three billion fewer birds flying about North America today than there were 50 years ago. This amounts to a staggering 29 percent decline in the continent’s diverse bird populations.

       This is sobering conclusion of a study entitled Decline of North American Avifauna recently published in the journal Science.

       This assessment was reached after a group of scientists studied data regarding populations of 529 species of birds. According to the paper’s lead author, Dr. Ken Rosenberg, a senior scientist with the Cornell laboratory of Ornithology, and the American Bird Conservancy, “This major loss was pervasive across all bird groups.”