North American bird declines story map

If you feel like you see or hear fewer birds than you used to, you're not imagining things.

Across North America, birds are vanishing from the landscapes they once thrived in. New research from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird Status and Trends was recently published in the journal Science. The paper, North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant, analyzes 495 North American bird species and shows that species we’ve long considered common, like American Robins and Mallards, are declining, especially in places where they were once most abundant.

These findings show the bird populations closest to you are changing.

Click the map to discover local trends for 4 significantly declining species

Included species are Northern Pintail, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Red-tailed Hawk

Data is available in the United States and Canada, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Trends were calculated between 2012 and 2022.

Declines can be hard to detect, especially over 10 years. Many birds you would have seen a decade ago are less abundant. We are becoming familiar with new, quieter springs. In an era of shifting baselines, a deficit of birds is all that our future generations will know, with no context for what they have lost.

We’ve long known North American bird populations are in peril, having lost 3 billion birds since 1970. For the first time, this new publication reveals fine-scale, localized trends in North America’s species, and crosses new frontiers in the application of crowd-sourced data. Participatory science data of more than 36 million observations shows that North American bird species are changing, with 75% of the included species declining and affected most severely in their traditional strongholds—the very places where they should be thriving.

Northern Pintails, Great Blue Herons, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Red-tailed Hawks are four of the many species experiencing widespread population declines. Their stories are featured below.

Waterfowl are declining despite historic population increases. In the case of the Northern Pintail, previously increasing wintering populations are now displaying declines.

Their winter numbers decreased 10.5% between 2011 and 2021 in parts of North America.

Each dot shows changes within a 27km x 27km area.

Blue dots show where bird populations are increasing.

Red dots show where bird populations are decreasing.

The darker the color, the stronger the trend is.

The size of the dot shows how abundant birds are in the area - large dots mean more total individuals, and small dots mean fewer total individuals.

If you’ve spent time near any wetlands in the southern U.S., you’ve probably seen these slim, elegant ducks with chocolate-brown heads and long, needle-pointed tails cutting across the sky.

Northern Pintails are a familiar sight each winter, gathering in the thousands in places along the Gulf Coast.

Their presence marks a seasonal rhythm that many locals have grown up with, birds returning as predictably as shorter days.

Pintails have decreased as much as 58% in this area.

Northern Pintails also flock to California’s Central Valley every winter, filling the skies over flooded rice fields and wetlands.

This region is well known for its extensive agricultural output, but it also serves as a critical wintering ground for some migratory birds. These areas once harbored Northern Pintails’ largest wintering populations, but their numbers have declined by nearly 50% in some spots.

Yet other areas are seeing population increases up to 36%. Intentional flooding of the region's productive farmlands has been generating habitat for migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, creating refuges for waterbird populations, including Northern Pintails, in the Central Valley.

Glimmers of hope are tucked in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley where Pintail populations have ticked upwards in recent years.

In some areas, population numbers have more than doubled.

New fine scale trends will allow us to better understand the cause of these increases, with the hope that impactful and efficient land management strategies can be applied in their southern wintering grounds to bolster populations.

Northern Pintail numbers are declining overall.

The Road to Recovery Initiative lists Northern Pintail in its Yellow Alert category of tipping point species due to its long-term population losses.

This species has seen declines in the wintering areas where pintails were once most abundant. Their historic population centers have become their weak points.

Many of the birds we grew up seeing and hearing are in decline. In North America, the greatest losses are occurring where species have historically been most abundant, something we can see in our neighborhoods and wild spaces. But these declines are not isolated to our local communities.

“This is the first time we have had fine-scale information on population changes that we can use across enormous spatial extents and across entire ranges of species, across entire countries and continents. And that provides us a better lens to understand the changes that are happening with bird populations.” shared Amanda Rodewald, the faculty director of Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

“Thanks to bird sightings submitted by people who use eBird, researchers have been able to uncover patterns in where birds are thriving, and where they’re disappearing. This kind of ‘participatory science’ is helping provide small-scale insights on valuable habitats and guide conservation action” to help birds and people.”said Rodewald.

“The beauty of eBird is that it really democratizes data and science.”

You don’t need to have a degree to make a difference. You don’t need to know the latin names of every species or have a yard. Whether you've spent your life watching birds or are becoming familiar with the species outside your window, your observations matter. And there are simple, meaningful ways to help birds.

Here are things you can do to help birds:

Watch birds and share what you see: Use Merlin Bird ID to identify species and submit sightings on eBird. Every checklist contributes to global science.

Make windows safer: Birds don’t see glass. Simple fixes such as stickers in two by two inch patterns, screens, or closing blinds can prevent deadly collisions.

Plant native plants and avoid pesticides: When gardening, incorporate native plans in place of lawns to create habitat for birds. Pesticides kill insects birds rely on to feed themselves and their young.

Photo by Troy Bynum

Learn more about 7 simple actions you can take to help birds.

Birds are resilient, and when we protect them, we protect the ecosystems we all rely on.

The declines we’re seeing in North America’s birds are serious, but they can be reversed. There’s reason for hope: we now have the tools to understand where birds need help most, so we can take meaningful action at a state level, in our communities, and our lives to create a better world for birds.

Header Image Credits:

Contributions by: Tom Auer, Gus Axelson, Kathi Borgmann, Myles Stokowski, and Matt Strimas-Mackey

Data From Birders Reveal Declines in North America’s Birds