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Learning about the positive impacts of the U.S. State of the Bird Report

Fledgling seaside sparrows. Photo by Elizabeth Hunter.

By Anne W. Semmes

Since that staggering statistic was given to us by scientists in 2019 that our country has lost more than a quarter of its bird population since 1970 – around three billion breeding birds, there’s been an effort to reverse that decline as spelled out last year in the U.S. State of the Bird Report, compiled by some 29 conservation organizations and governmental entities working to address this loss. To learn more about that Report Connecticut Audubon has kicked off the first of five zoom presentations featuring those, “Young, Gifted and Wild About Birds.”

Corina Newsome has all of those qualities. And her favorite poem is “Hope is the thing with feathers,” by Emily Dickenson. She’s an associate conservation scientist at the National Wildlife Federation and member of the Bird Report’s Communication Committee. She’s on the Steering Committee for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and is a founder of Black Birders Week. Based in Atlanta, Newsome first took us viewers on a memorable walk into the salt marshes of Georgia.

Wetlands were the only habitats, she tells, “where we saw an average increase in the population of birds that inhabit those ecosystems.” But that upward trend,” she notes is “specific to waterfowl in particular, and some other water birds. And that was because of bills like the Wetlands Conservation Act, and the North American Waterfowl Management plan that allowed for the strategic use of private lands to ensure that those lands were managed to support waterfowl populations.

“But birds that live in coastal marshes, salt marshes or even freshwater marshes are seeing really steep declines,” she adds. “Birds like salt marsh sparrows or seaside sparrows are seeing declines even though they live in that wetland bird category.” And those sparrows are some of her favorite birds, having studied them while earning her master’s degree. And one of the visuals shows her at work in a giant coastal marsh in Georgia. “It looks like there might not be a lot going on in there,” she tells, “but there is so much life bursting at the seams in salt marshes, and there are so many different kinds of birds that live in salt marshes.”

Corina Newsome, associate conservation scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, first guest speaker for Connecticut Audubon’s “Young, Gifted and Wild About Birds” five-part zoom presentations addressing the U.S. State of the Birds Report. Photo by Anne W. Semmes.

And then the drama begins. We see up close and personal via her video “the dynamics that are threatening their existence…like this predation event for a seaside sparrow.” We see deep inside that grassy marsh an American mink suddenly grabbing an egg out of a seaside sparrow nest. “And that’s a natural dynamic that has always existed,” she noted, “But in the context of climate change, we’re seeing coastal species like salt marsh sparrows and seaside sparrows having essentially this increased threat.”

Then comes an even more jarring video. We see another seaside sparrow nest with two eggs and a chick floating on top of water. “So, this is a high tide event that has unfortunately overtopped the nest and the chick that you see just hatched earlier that day…it’s only hours old. And so unfortunately, sea level rise, which is a consequence of climate change, is one of the threats that’s being exacerbated for coastal marsh dwelling birds.” Add another threat.

“In my research flooding actually comes with new aquatic predators. This video shows you a fish, which is this dark line, and it’s actually going to eat the chick. I’m not showing you the whole video, but you can see that fish, which accessed the nest because of flooding, now deprecating that chick. And so, issues like climate change are exacerbating already existing threats of predation for birds like seaside sparrows.”

Newsome then introduced us to the concept of birds as environmental justice multipliers that is highlighted in the State of the Birds Report.

“So, oftentimes we might hear climate change is a threat multiplier,” she begins, “So, a bird that experienced predation naturally now has to deal with flooding plus predation – a threat multiplier. That’s true for people too…So, when I say environmental justice, I’m specifically referring to the fact that there are communities of people both here in the United States and around the world that carry the burden of environmental harm or environmental degradation much more than other communities. So, black communities, indigenous communities, brown communities, low wealth communities typically are more exposed to environmental harms and hazards and have decreased access to environmental amenities…That’s environmental injustice.”

“So, when we invest in bird conservation,” she continues, “we can multiply or increase environmental justice access to healthy environments for black, brown, or low wealth communities. And birds connect landscapes across hemispheres, but they also connect communities,” as in her hometown of Atlanta. “Birds that utilize some of our really beautiful, large lush state parks are also utilizing very tiny city parks…So, greening urban areas with native trees helps to not only restore the habitats of birds and bring birds back that require those kinds of ecosystems, it also helps improve the health of communities of color, and underserved urban communities.”

In the following Q&A Newsome was asked about Black Birders Week. “It connects black people who are birders,” she answers. “It builds a network of black people who love spending time outside.” And what was life-changing about it for Newsome was how in the course of a year, she says, “I went from knowing one and a half black birders, and by half, I mean they kind of like birds, to a network of literally hundreds and hundreds of black people who love birds, and these are my friends, these are my mentors now.”

“To celebrate the diversity of birds the same way that we are birding is literally a celebration of diversity,” she adds. “And so, our environments and the people who we are with they should reflect that value of diversity and oftentimes they don’t. And this will be the fourth Black Birders Week coming up. And I never could have imagined that there were this many black people who loved what I loved. And so now I feel so much more empowered to follow my calling and the things that I’m passionate about.”

For information on the ongoing zoom presentations at Connecticut Audubon, contact Tom Andersen at tandersen@ctaudubon.org

Graphic by Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
Aerial view of Corina Newsome in a marsh. Photo by David Wright.
Mummichog fish attacking and consuming a seaside sparrow chick. Photo by Corina Newsome.
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