20
Mar
Latest State of the Birds Report Highlights Population Declines Indicative of Deteriorating Ecosystem Health
(Beyond Pesticides, March 20, 2025) An article, published by the National Audubon Society, titled “A Sweeping New Report Shows U.S. Birds Declining Sharply Across a Range of Habitats†reviews the latest State of the Birds 2025 report and finds concerning news for bird species across the country. As the article says: “Whether they hop around the prairie, dabble in wetlands, flit through forests, or forage along the shore, birds are suffering rapid population declines across the United States… If these habitats are struggling to support bird species, it’s a sign that they’re not healthy for other wildlife, or even humans—but working to restore them will have benefits across ecosystems.”
The 2025 edition of the State of the Birds report, showcasing a status assessment of the health of the nation’s bird populations, was cultivated by scientists from bird conservation groups through the U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The report notes, “Despite ample evidence that conservation can work, the status quo approach to conservation is not turning bird populations around.â€
As NABCI shares, the report contains “[s]obering evidence that America’s birds continue to decline across the board.†They continue, saying: “Birds are telling us that the habitats people depend on are vanishing. Declines are happening across the board: in grasslands, aridlands, western and eastern forests, in Hawaii’s fragile ecosystems; and with our shorebirds and seabirds. Even waterfowl, which had rebounded strongly thanks to decades of conservation work, are seeing sharp recent declines.â€
Not only are bird species important for preserving biodiversity, but many species provide ecosystem services as pollinators. Protecting bird species, and their habitats, allows for other organisms, including humans, to prosper. The National Audubon Society shares their mission in saying, “For 120 years and counting, the National Audubon Society has preserved bird habitats, conducted scientific research, influenced policymakers to enact commonsense conservation laws, and engaged communities across the hemisphere to protect the natural resources upon which birds—and we—depend.â€
The assessment reveals that impacts to bird species are not limited to select habitats but does note that some face heightened threats in comparison to others. Within the Audubon article, the author highlights: “The 2025 report shows that birds across most habitats have suffered major losses since 1970. Grassland and aridland species have been dealt the heaviest blow: Both groups lost more than 40 percent of their total populations over that period.â€
The article continues, “Overall, around one-third of U.S. birds, or 229 species, are of high or moderate conservation concern, according to the report—dealing with low population levels, declining trends, or other threats that call for conservation action to step up.†The State of the Birds 2025 report, which focuses on long-term population changes for 246 total species of North American birds, highlights just one piece of the larger picture; as bird species face population threats, so do other organisms within terrestrial and aquatic food webs and across all ecosystems.
The report notes particular species of highest concern, labeled as “tipping point†species that have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years. In total, 112 tipping point species are identified, with shorebirds having the highest number of tipping point species (19) out of all of the identified habitat groups. The report emphasizes the importance of these findings in saying, “Rates of shorebird declines exceed thresholds for listing as vulnerable/endangered under national and international conservation standards.â€
The impacts to grassland birds are also perilous, with more than half of bird species that depend on grasslands for breeding habitats in steep decline. The report shares: “In America’s Heartland, more than 320 million acres of grasslands support people’s livelihoods, Indigenous cultures, and ecosystem functions. Yet this crucial biome is in collapse—and grassland birds are rapidly disappearing—due to conversion for row-crop agriculture, woody-plant invasion, and drought.â€
Beyond Pesticides has reported on many scientific studies that tie impacts on bird species to the interconnected issues of pesticide exposure, habitat loss, and climate change. From higher insecticide levels in pesticide-laden nests linked to increased offspring mortality to the threats to seed-eating birds from neonicotinoid treated seeds, agricultural intensification harms bird species within the U.S. and throughout the world. (See additional coverage here.)
Previous research in 2019, published in Science, estimated a net loss of nearly 3 billion birds since 1970. The authors “report wide-spread population declines of birds over the past half-century, resulting in the cumulative loss of billions of breeding individuals across a wide range of species and habitats.†The study shows that “declines are not restricted to rare and threatened species—those once considered common and wide-spread are also diminished. These results have major implications for ecosystem integrity, the conservation of wildlife more broadly, and policies associated with the protection of birds and native ecosystems on which they depend.†Despite these staggering results that had advocates calling for action, over five years later bird populations are still declining.
As mentioned in Beyond Pesticides’ coverage of this study, the decline in bird populations reflect overall ecosystem health that is directly impacted by harmful agricultural practices. These issues have been of concern for decades, back to when Rachel Carson warned the world how insidious pesticide use can be. She wrote in Silent Spring:Â
“For each of us, as for the robin in Michigan or the Salmon in the Miramichi, this is a problem of ecology, of interrelationships, of interdependence. We poison the caddis flies in a stream and the salmon runs dwindle and die. We poison the gnats in a lake and the poison travels from link to link of the food chain and soon the birds of the lake margins become its victims. We spray our elms and the following springs are silent of robin song, not because we sprayed the robins directly but because the poison traveled, step by step, through the now familiar elm leaf-earthworm-robin cycle. These are matters of record, observable, part of the visible world around us. They reflect the web of life — or death — that scientists know as ecology.â€
The latest State of the Birds 2025 report is more than just an assessment of population effects for birds—it indicates environmental decline in critical ecosystems that impact all organisms. Whether directly or as part of ecological ripples throughout the food web, a trophic cascade that affects all life is clearly occurring. A driving factor for these declines, as has been well-documented in scientific literature, is industrial agriculture. In order to protect all organisms, from birds to mammals to insects, eliminating the use of harmful chemicals is essential.
Despite compelling scientific findings, officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have not felt compelled to act. Beyond Pesticides, in comments to EPA in February 2024, cited a dramatic regulatory failure to address the effects of endocrine disrupting pesticides on bird populations and other wildlife. As far back as 1988, a report on the Great Lakes ecosystem found a range of adverse effects to fertility, eggshell thinning, metabolic function, birth defects, and more. These findings and others less than a decade later led to the adoption of amendments to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act which required EPA to regulate endocrine disrupting pesticides. However, the agency has not acted, despite the empirical evidence that is mounting to unsustainable levels. (See more on endocrine disruption and EPA failures here and here.)
While efforts to reduce harm to species are reflected in proposed legislation, they are often weakened throughout the process, such as with the recent Birds and Bees Protection Act, and do not sufficiently mitigate the threats from toxic chemicals. As an alternative, transitioning to organic land management practices, and focusing on soil health, can reverse these threats and subsequent population declines noted in species such as birds. (See previous coverage on organic farming reducing pesticide load in bird species here.)
Join this effort by purchasing organic products, planting diverse pesticide-free vegetation, and advocating for your local community to follow suit. We must take action to prevent the complete loss of species before it is too late. Ensure your voice is heard in promoting the holistic solution of organic land management and help Beyond Pesticides achieve the goal of eliminating petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers by 2032 by becoming a member today.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Sources:
Burakoff, M. (2025) A Sweeping New Report Shows U.S. Birds Declining Sharply Across a Range of Habitats, Audubon. Available at: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/sweeping-new-report-shows-us-birds-declining-sharply-across-range-habitats.
Rosenberg, K. et al. (2019) Decline of the North American avifauna, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1313.
State of the Birds Report (2025) North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Available at: https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2025/download-pdf-report/.
