> Experts believe that habitat loss due to agricultural development and intensification is most likely the driving factor.
But I don't think the numbers in the article make sense together.
> wild bird populations in the continental U.S. and Canada have declined by 29 percent—or a total net loss of around three billion birds—since 1970.
> between 365 million and one billion birds die each year across the U.S. as a result of window strikes.)
> pet felines kill some 2.6 billion birds annually in the U.S. alone.
So ... the total decline over 50 years (~3B) is approximately the same as the annual deaths from cats and windows at somewhere between a quarter and a third of all birds? I think this is one of those cases where uncritically accepting estimates from independent sources who used different methods produces an incoherent picture.
> Experts believe that habitat loss due to agricultural development and intensification is most likely the driving factor.
But I don't think the numbers in the article make sense together.
> wild bird populations in the continental U.S. and Canada have declined by 29 percent—or a total net loss of around three billion birds—since 1970.
> between 365 million and one billion birds die each year across the U.S. as a result of window strikes.)
> pet felines kill some 2.6 billion birds annually in the U.S. alone.
So ... the total decline over 50 years (~3B) is approximately the same as the annual deaths from cats and windows at somewhere between a quarter and a third of all birds? I think this is one of those cases where uncritically accepting estimates from independent sources who used different methods produces an incoherent picture.