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Shifts in Habitat = Shifts in Species

August 2, 2020
Big changes in the northeastern US
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Brown Thrasher Expand Image
© Kenneth Cole Schneider

We asked David Sibley, creator and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, how changes in the environment are affecting birds such as this Brown Thrasher. He says, “A shift of habitat has caused a shift in the species” he's observed in the Northeastern US. For example, Wild Turkeys, Pileated Woodpeckers, and Cooper’s Hawks do really well in woodlands. A hundred years ago, it was all farmland. Today, species like the Eastern Meadowlark, Field Sparrow and Brown Thrasher are having a hard time, because that there’s not much farmland left.

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BirdNote®

Shifts in Habitat Cause Shifts in Bird Species

An Interview with David Sibley

By Chris Peterson

This is BirdNote!

[Call and drumming of Red-bellied Woodpecker]

We asked David Sibley, creator and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, if he’s seeing changes with birds as the result of changes in the environ-ment. 

Yah, I see big, big changes. Now my experience is mostly in the Northeast. …I can think back to 1970 when I was a kid, birding there and compare that to now, and I can remember getting really excited, and with my father and my brother jumping in the car to chase a Red-bellied Woodpecker that had shown up at a birdfeeder near us in Connecticut.

And now people laugh about that! Red-bellied Woodpecker is one of the com-monest backyard birds in Connecticut, through the whole state…

[Repeat Red-bellied call and or drumming]

What about other species in the Northeast?

“Wild Turkey [Calls of Wild Turkeys] Pileated Woodpecker has become much more common. Cooper’s Hawk… +… they do really well in woodlands, …which is what we have a lot of now in Connecticut. A hundred years ago it was all farm-land and now it’s all reverted back to mostly forest. [Calls of flock of Wild Tur-keys]

And species like Eastern Meadowlark and Field Sparrow and Brown Thrasher that like the fields and edges and hedgerows are having a hard time now that there’s not very much farmland left. [Song of Field Sparrow]

It’s really a shift of habitat that has caused a shift in the species.

What changes in bird populations are you seeing? Share your story at birdnote.org

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Itha-ca, New York. Red-bellied Woodpecker 102195 recorded by David W. Stemple; Wild Turkey 50137 and Field Sparrow 50244 both recorded by G. A. Keller

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Dominic Black

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org  August 2018/2020  Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#   sibleyd-04-2014-08-20  sibleyd-04

http://www.sibleyguides.com/2014/01/the-second-edition-is-in-hand/

Chris Peterson
Writer
Mary McCann
Narrator
Kenneth Cole Schneider
Photographer
Tags: Connecticut, environmental champion, history, human disturbance, Northeast, urban, farmland

Related Resources

Learn more about David Sibley and his field guidesRed-bellied Woodpecker – More at All About BirdsBrown Thrasher – More at All About BirdsWild Turkey – More at All About BirdsPileated Woodpecker – More at All About BirdsCooper’s Hawk – More at All About BirdsEastern Meadowlark – More at All About BirdsField Sparrow – More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

Meleagris gallopavo

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Dryocopus pileatus

Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)

Melanerpes carolinus

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Accipiter cooperii

Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna)

Sturnella magna

Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla)

Spizella pusilla

Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum)

Toxostoma rufum

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Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

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