Birds are declining faster and faster in 3 US hotspots, new study finds

Climate warming has adversely affected bird populations. Researchers have revealed that North American birds are declining at an accelerating rate in three regional hotspots associated with intense agriculture.

(Photo: Male house finch and white breasted nutchatch at the Fort Valley Experimental Forest; AZ; USA. Credit USDA)

Birds are declining faster and faster in 3 U.S. hotspots, new study finds 

 By Patrick Pester published March 4, 2026, Live Science

Bird populations are in free fall across North America. And in some hotspots their decline is accelerating, a new study reveals.

Wild bird numbers declined at an accelerating rate in California, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic between 1987 and 2021. Across these hotspots, losses were associated with high-intensity agriculture, according to the study.

Although the study, published Feb. 26 in the journal Science, shows a correlation between declining bird populations and intense agriculture, it doesn't definitively prove that agriculture is driving the increased decline or identify which agricultural activities might be responsible.

However, signs of intense agricultural activity consistently proved to be the best predictor of increased bird decline, which mirrors similar research conducted in Europe. The researchers also found that declines were stronger in warming areas, suggesting that rising temperatures due to climate change were driving some bird disappearances.

Birds perform important roles in the ecosystem, including spreading plant seeds and keeping insect populations under control. For decades, scientists have been concerned that bird populations are falling due to human activities, both in North America and globally — a plight shared by many other animals. What's special about the new research is that it reveals how the decline in North America has accelerated since the late 1980s.

"We are not talking about the decline but the acceleration of the decline," study lead author François Leroy, a postdoctoral researcher in macroecology at The Ohio State University, told Live Science. "We see that this decline is getting faster and faster with the intensification of human activities."

Common birds ‪—‬ like red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) and American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) ‪—‬ were among the native species found to have suffered an accelerated decline.

A 2019 study published in the journal Science estimated that the North American bird population decreased by 2.9 billion individual birds between 1970 and 2017. That estimate equated to a drop of 29%, which is almost double the 15% decline documented in the new study. However, the 2019 study also covered an earlier and longer time period when there may have been more severe losses. CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE