Sheril KirshenbaumJul 23, 2023

In the U.S., recent annual estimates of bird deaths due to:

Cats = 2.4 billion bird deaths

Collisions from building glass = 600 million bird deaths

Land wind turbines = <200,000 bird deaths

Some politicians claim wind turbines “kill all the birds.”

But… they’re not really worried about birds. Rather, they prefer we stick with oil & gas over renewable #energy.

https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/15195/wind-turbines-are-not-killing-fields-for-birds/ #climatechange

Infographic: What Is Killing U.S. Birds?

This chart shows the estimated range of annual human-caused bird deaths in the U.S., by source.

Statista Daily Data
Show threadRachel GreenhamJul 23, 2023
@Sheril @lisamelton even then this is only counting deaths by direct physical cause. The amount bird populations have dropped due to habitat loss and failed nests due to intensive farming and fishing destroying nest sites and decimating their prey, probably dwarfs even the toll from cats (who are mostly an urban phenomenon) and is the background that makes these other causes significant at all.
Show threadBarbara MonacoJul 23, 2023
@StrangeNoises @Sheril @lisamelton Ornithologists agree. US has lost 3 billion birds in the last half century. Cornell University says that our bird population has fallen by 30% since 1970.
Cats and tall buildings and windmills have played a part, but ecological changes are the biggest culprit.
Show threadNorman WilsonJul 23, 2023
@Barbramon1 @StrangeNoises @Sheril @lisamelton
Top of this thread says cats kill 2.4 billion birds a year.
Your post says we've lost 3 billion in 50 years.
This seems inconsistent. Which is true?
Show threadRachel Greenham

@oclsc @Barbramon1 @Sheril @lisamelton they can't both be right can they? I suspect the latter is a massive underestimate, but i also look askance at the former, frankly. Here in the UK naturalists are talking about many species having lost more like 90% (ninety percent) of their numbers over a few decades. And they squarely blame intensive farming, and the other thing we don't talk enough about, the absolute insect apocalypse that's going on.

edit: avast-ye

Jul 23, 2023 at 5:13pmIvory for Mac
Show threadRachel GreenhamJul 23, 2023

@oclsc @Barbramon1 @Sheril @lisamelton i mean, we tend to notice the loss of insect life only in positive terms; how our cars aren't plastered with their bodies along the front after a long journey, fewer flies invading the house this summer, that sort of thing. But it's a huge disaster, and the birds are - very nearly literally - the canaries in that coalmine.

edit: too many vasts in thread

Show threadRachel GreenhamJul 23, 2023

@oclsc @Barbramon1 @Sheril @lisamelton also to be remembered: Shifting Baseline Syndrome: Every generation (in the last century or two) has witnessed a decline, but we think of how nature was when we were growing up to be normal, and the written accounts of its vast, abundance say a couple of hundred years ago barely seem credible.

edit: keeping this one but now duped the hugeness…

Show threadRachel GreenhamJul 23, 2023
@oclsc @Barbramon1 @Sheril @lisamelton cats hunting birds in suburban gardens would be a rounding error if it wasn't for the wider environmental holocaust going on. they can be killing that many more birds than windfarms and still be a scapegoat to distract you from the real problem.
Show threadNorman WilsonJul 23, 2023
@StrangeNoises @Barbramon1 @Sheril @lisamelton Looks like one is US-only and the other world-wide, which makes a lot more sense.
Show threadBarbara MonacoJul 23, 2023
@oclsc There's some confusing information out there. Some online sources say that the 2.4 billion is a US figure, but I will go with Cornell Ornithology Lab's findings. Their scholarship is always impeccable.