As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday 21 March 2014

Conservationist: Loss of birds threatens nature’s balance

From his back yard along Lake Michigan, Highland Park resident Donnie Dann has a front-row seat for bird migrations each spring and fall. He’ll soon be hearing the “morning chorus” announcing that the spring passage has begun.

In recent years, though, the chorus has been thinning — yet another sign the migratory bird population is declining.

“Every spring, there are fewer and fewer members of that chorus,” observed Dann, a conservationist who led a discussion Sunday, March 16, at the Highland Park Public Library. Audience members had watched the documentary, “The Lost Bird Project,” which follows an artist’s mission to memorialize five extinct bird species by placing large sculptures at the sites where each was last observed.

“Birds are pollinators. Birds are insect-eaters. Birds plant seeds and grow trees,” Dann said. “If the health of birds suffers, the predators and prey of birds suffer because things get out of balance.”

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