N E W S
Sandhill Cranes on the platte River. photo by Marti Phillips.
Bye-Bye, Birdies?
Climate Change, Habitat Loss Pose Threats
Story by Chris Bowling,THE READER & Elizabeth Miller,Climate Central
T
he back office was cramped and drafty. Bags of bird feed reached toward the ceiling as employees for Wild Bird Habitat Store wheeled shipments through an open garage door, their breath fogging in the February air. A songbird’s chirps filled the room. “Oh, that’s mine,” said Dave Titterington, the store’s owner as he silenced his chickadee ringtone. The 72-year-old has run Lincoln’s go-to shop for bird seed, bird houses and everything bird related since 1993. He said his staff of about 10 employees moves between
14,000 and 18,000 pounds of feed a week. But feed and birdhouses are just the hooks. Titterington speaks to Cub Scouts and Rotary clubs, hosts events with notable authors and documentarians and serves on local and statewide boards. What keeps his customers coming back is the awareness he helps foster about people’s connectedness with birds — the ones they hunt or watch through binoculars, the ones that boost their agricultural economy and the ones facing big threats. “My whole theory was if I can get people interested in
birds in their backyard … it generates an interest for other bird species and builds a public consensus when issues like climate change come up,” Titterington said. Nebraska’s unique ecology of arid prairie, lush grasslands and vast waterways makes it perfect for sandhill cranes, greater prairie chickens and western meadowlark. All told, 467 bird species live in, stop by or migrate through the state, according to the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union. But climate change and habitat loss have led to ranges shifting and bird populations declining. Since 1970 North America has lost
30% of its birds — about 3 billion in total, according to a multi-institution study published in 2019. Birders like Titterington notice the drop in the birds arriving in his backyard, and he and others worry for their fate. The warming climate is more frequently producing weather conditions unsuitable for iconic native species. “People need to really pay attention because birds are the canary in the coal mine,” Titterington said. “They’re the ones telling us that we’ve got a lot of problems with the environment … If we lose birds, we might mirror them.”
Some of the Nebraska species vulnerable due to climate change. photos courtesy of The AUDUBON SOCIETY.
Red-headed Woodpecker
Melanerpes erythrocephalus
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Least Tern
Sternula antillarum
Long-billed Curlew
Numenius americanus
March 2023
Greater Prairie Chicken Tympanuchus cupido
Lesser Prairie Chicken
Tympanuchus pallidicinctus
Lark Bunting
Calamospiza melanocorys
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Tympanuchus phasianellus
Black-billed Magpie Pica hudsonia