Across Europe, Insectivorous Bird Species Have Crashed Since 1990s - Are Neonicotinoids The Reason?

[hatrack]

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According to Henk Tennekes, a researcher at the Experimental Toxicology Services in Zutphen, the Netherlands, the threat of DDT has been superseded by a relatively new class of insecticide, known as the neonicotinoids. In his book The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making, published this month, Tennekes draws all the evidence together, to make the case that neonicotinoids are causing a catastrophe in the insect world, which is having a knock-on effect for many of our birds. Already, in many areas, the skies are much quieter than they used to be. All over Europe, many species of bird have suffered a population crash. Spotting a house sparrow, common swift or a flock of starlings used to be unremarkable, but today they are a more of an unusual sight. Since 1977, Britain's house-sparrow population has shrunk by 68 per cent.

The common swift has suffered a 41 per cent fall in numbers since 1994, and the starling 26 per cent. The story is similar for woodland birds (such as the spotted flycatcher, willow tit and wood warbler), and farmland birds (including the northern lapwing, snipe, curlew, redshank and song thrush). Ornithologists have been trying desperately to work out what is behind these rapid declines. Urban development, hermetically sealed houses and barns, designer gardens and changing farming practices have all been blamed, but exactly why these birds have fallen from the skies is still largely unexplained.

However, Tennekes thinks there may be a simple reason. "The evidence shows that the bird species suffering massive decline since the 1990s rely on insects for their diet," he says. He believes that the insect world is no longer thriving, and that birds that feed on insects are short on food. o what has happened to all the insects? In the Nineties, a new class of insecticide – the neonicotinoids – was introduced. Beekeepers were the first people to notice a problem, as their bees began to desert their hives and die, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

The first cases were in France in 1994, but the epidemic quickly fanned out across Europe, and by 2006 CCD reached the US too. Between 2006 and 2009 one third of American beekeepers reported cases of colony collapse. Aside from the loss of revenue in honey sales, this is worrying news because honey bees are one of the world's most important pollinators, and 35 per cent of agricultural crops rely on pollinators.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/none-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-a-world-without-birds-2134031.html

[hedgehog]

1. I saw no sparrows or starlings on a recent trip to the Manchester, England area.

We have huge flocks of starlings gathering around Syracuse, New York now, as is normal for the Fall. I would guess we don't use the same pesticides, haven't used them as long or as heavily, we have more open land that isn't treated, the starlings feed on seeds or some combination of all those factors.

[XemaSab]

2. It's a depressing thought that starlings and house sparrows

may survive in North America but not Europe. :(

[Canuckistanian]

3. Oh, great

WE get all the starlings who are killing off our native species and displacing them by decimating food sources. And now in their native home, they're dieing off.

Humans suck.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. Try and spot robins, wrens or sparrows while in Orange County, CA

It's nearly impossible. The bird decline/decimation is tragically under-reported in far too many regions.