- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Urban
expansion and loss of open space have put some 25 percent of North America's
bird species in trouble or decline, more than double the number of species
at risk five years ago, a study said on Tuesday.
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- The National Audubon Society, the wildlife conservation
organization, released for the first time in five years its watch list
of birds that are declining in population or are endangered or threatened.
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- About 201 birds are on the watch list and 21 of them
are in the endangered category, said Audubon spokesman John Bianchi.
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- Bianchi said habitat was being destroyed "due to
increasing conversion of farmland to urban areas, and from grasslands to
farmlands."
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- The Audubon list aims to draw attention to the decline
and rally support to rebuild bird populations, said Frank Gill, Audubon
chief ornithologist and vice president of science.
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- "We almost lost our national bird, the bald eagle,
because we were taking things for granted," Gill told reporters at
Audubon's headquarters during the 2002 Watchlist release.
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- "The bald eagle was a warning about pesticides.
DDT was around (in the environment) and we got it off the market,"
Gill said. "We saved the eagles, and they have now moved from a precarious
state 25 years ago to almost 'in abundance."'
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- Birds are the primary indicators of environmental health,
and what hurts birds also hurts the people who share the same space, Gill
said.
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- "We should listen to what their declines are telling
us about the ecosystems we both inhabit," he said.
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- Since 1970, the California Thrasher and the Southeast's
Painted Bunting have shown declines in excess of 50 percent, while the
Cerulean Warbler of the eastern United States has declined by more than
70 percent.
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- The Henslow's Sparrow from the Midwest has dropped by
80 percent, while the Hawaiian 'Akikiki from Kauai has dropped from about
6,800 birds in the early 1970s to 1,000 birds today.
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- The 2002 watch list includes birds of Hawaii and Puerto
Rico in addition to birds of mainland North America.
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