Bye-Bye Birdie!

The numbers are truly remarkable. Kim Heacox notes that, in the last 50 years, North America has lost 25% of its birds (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/28/birds-are-remarkable-and-beautiful-animals-and-theyre-disappearing-from-our-world). Notable mass die-offs have occurred in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas. Bluebirds, flycatchers, sparrows, swallows and warblers are especially affected. Several species, such as the Ivory-billed woodpecker and Bachman's warbler, have become extinct. Climate change is having a very marked impact on birds as well as humans. To paraphrase Heacox (only slightly), all birds are now canaries, in the human coalmine. Not a role they volunteered for!