North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant
Efforts to address declines of North American birds have been constrained by limited availability of fine-scale information about population change. By using participatory science data from eBird, we estimated continental population change and relative abundance at 27-kilometer resolution for 495 bird species from 2007 to 2021. Results revealed high and previously undetected spatial heterogeneity in trends; although 75% of species were declining, 97% of species showed separate areas of significantly increasing and decreasing populations. Populations tended to decline most steeply in strongholds where species were most abundant, yet they fared better where species were least abundant. These high-resolution trends improve our ability to understand population dynamics, prioritize recovery efforts, and guide conservation at a time when action is urgently needed.
Authors
- L Jaromczyk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1648-8197)
- Wesley M. Hochachka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0595-7827)
- Courtney L. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6467-4288)
- Amanda D. Rodewald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6719-6306)
- Matthew Strimas‐Mackey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8929-7776)
- Adriaan M. Dokter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6573-066X)
- Shawn Ligocki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7163-5570)
- Viviana Ruiz‐Gutiérrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7116-1168)
- Tom Auer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8619-7147)
- Andrew N. Stillman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6692-380X)
- Eliot T. Miller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7565-6336)
- Orin J. Robinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8935-1242)
- Daniel Fink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8368-1248)
- Alison Johnston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8221-013X)
- Clare Crowley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8004-5385)
- Christopher S. Wood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1725-9444)
Institutions
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- Cornell University (US)
- Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (US)
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- American Bird Conservancy
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn4381
- Citations
- 36
- Primary Topic
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 66.18