The decline in bird species

RECENT scientific advancements around the world conflict with some environmental systems, hence, there are many struggles to create a balance. One of the talking points is the towerkill.

Towerkill is a phenomenon that describes the killing of a large number of bird species by antenna towers and masts.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it is estimated that between five and 50 million birds are killed in the United State each year by tower kill while ‘window crashes’ kill between 100 and 900 million birds a year.

Considering that lots of endangered bird species make these figure, the impact is huge. This is the leading human-related cause of wild bird deaths.

Telecommunications and broadcasting companies need towers and masts for antennas, yes. Migratory and cosmopolitan birds also find them as nesting sites, but the greater concern is how to reduce the threats that towers pose to the survival of birds.

No doubt, birds are a part of our natural environment. They have developed quite some biological and behavioural adaptations to help them to thrive and survive within and outside their natural habitat.

Birds are even referred to as “environmental indicators” because of their ability to detect the slightest changes in our environment, years before humans and machines will.

Remember the biblical story of Noah and the flood? He sent out two different bird species, the raven and the dove, to check if the water had abated.

The raven didn’t return because of the feed on decaying bodies, while on the other hand, the dove came back initially because there was no suitable habitat to nest, and the second time with an olive leaf which indicated that plants had started growing.

Birds live in and near trees which are their natural sources of habitation because they provide them with the needed materials to build their nests and also get food supplies from the insects and worms on and around the trees.

The irony is that cosmopolitan birds such as the falcon, osprey, egret, etc, have been found to adapt well to the city structure, while on the other hand, migratory birds like bald eagle, belted kingfisher, canada goose, common merganser, etc, that migrates yearly find it herculean.