{"id":601921,"date":"2026-04-23T16:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601921\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:38:09","slug":"bird-populations-are-shrinking-faster-in-agriculture-hotspots-including-the-midwest-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601921\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird populations are shrinking faster in agriculture hotspots \u2014 including the Midwest, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscribe to the new\u00a0Harvest newsletter<\/a>, for our latest reporting on agriculture and the environment, behind-the-scenes exclusives and more.<\/p>\n

A new study finds\u00a0bird populations<\/a>\u00a0are declining at a faster pace in areas with a lot of agriculture, especially in the Midwest.<\/p>\n

The loss of bird populations has been documented since the 1970s. A landmark study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published in 2019 found the North American bird population is down by 2.9 billion breeding adults across geographical regions since then.<\/p>\n

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The recent\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0at Ohio State University found that across North America, more than 120 bird species are experiencing decline, and of those, more than half are experiencing accelerated decline.<\/p>\n

Researchers focused on geographic areas where they saw faster declines in bird populations, including in the Midwest, California and Mid-Atlantic states. They then focused on potential causes and found a strong link between accelerated bird decline and areas with a lot of agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data we had access to were the amount of pesticides used, the amount of fertilizer used and the amount of croplands,\u201d said Fran\u00e7ois Leroy, the lead author and a post-doctoral student at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn American robin forages in a stream in Lee\u2019s Summit, Missouri, for material to build a nest. Bird populations are declining more rapidly in areas with intensive agriculture, according to a study at Ohio State University. Carlos Moreno\/KCUR<\/p>\n

Prior studies<\/a>\u00a0have found habitat loss, declines in insect populations and the climate crisis to be key contributors to bird decline. The new research found that agricultural practices are speeding up the already occurring decline, Leroy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have a decline and just the decline per se was related to the temperature, where the acceleration of the decline was related to agricultural practices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The study was published in\u00a0Science<\/a>\u00a0in February.<\/p>\n

Mike Ward is a professor studying bird behavior and ecology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and read the study. He said these findings \u2014 although new \u2014 were not surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome changes in agricultural practices have led to reductions in habitat and likely food availability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Increased fertilizer use and a lack of native plants around fields may be behind the faster decline of bird populations, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure\u2019s on farmers to get as much yield as possible,\u201d he said, \u201cand that easily results in getting rid of hedgerows, getting rid of other pieces of habitats and then using various chemicals or fertilizers and such to try to maximize yields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating more land that\u2019s habitable for birds would help populations, Ward said. He points to a program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that pays farmers to convert highly erodible and environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover.<\/p>\n

\"AA house finch settles on a feeder in Lee\u2019s Summit, Missouri. Researchers in an Ohio State University study found bird populations are declining more quickly in agricultural hotspots. Carlos Moreno\/KCUR<\/p>\n

Bird decline has grave consequences for broader environmental health. Birds regulate insect populations, spread plant seeds and are an important element on the food chain that other animals rely on.<\/p>\n

Ward said he knows\u00a0farmers are concern<\/a>ed<\/a>\u00a0about the environment, including bird loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really want to do things, and then we\u2019ve got to think strategically about these small things they can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andrew Stillman, an applied quantitative ecologist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said the study\u2019s findings are very important. Now, more research needs to be done to find solutions, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to understand the mechanisms behind these changes using more localized studies that go above and beyond the correlations shown in this study to show which aspects of agricultural intensity are impacting birds the most and what can we do about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stillman thinks it is still possible to stop the decline before irreparable damage is done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think that there\u2019s good news here, because we\u2019ve seen that it\u2019s possible to reverse those declines,\u201d he said. \u201cThink about birds like bald eagles or peregrine falcons or even some waterfowl species. There are a lot of success stories that we\u2019ve seen over the last 50 years, and that tells us that recovery of bird populations is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe familiar silhouette of a mourning dove. More than 120 bird species are experiencing decline, and of those, more than half are experiencing accelerated decline a study from Ohio State University found. Carlos Moreno\/KCUR<\/p>\n

But if nothing is done, bird populations will continue to decline at increasingly faster rates, Levoy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we continue to use intensive agriculture, this acceleration should continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He hopes the study will start conversations, especially in the agricultural community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important (thing) here is to start a dialogue with the farmers, because we need to keep in mind that farmers are the real field experts,\u201d Levoy said. \u201cThey are the ones who are walking everyday in the fields. I think they\u2019d have a lot to say about what we\u2019ve observed in the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was produced in partnership with\u00a0Harvest Public Media<\/a>, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subscribe to the new\u00a0Harvest newsletter, for our latest reporting on agriculture and the environment, behind-the-scenes exclusives and more.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-601921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}