Acceleration hotspots of North American birds' decline are associated with agriculture
Summary
Human activities might have accelerated declines of population abundance, but this acceleration remains underexplored. Using 1033 North American Breeding Bird Survey routes, we analyze abundance change and its acceleration for 261 bird species, 54 avian families, and 10 habitats from 1987 to 2021. We show an average continent-wide decline of abundance of all birds per local route, with hotspots of decline in southern and warm parts of North America and hotspots of accelerating decline in t
Content
# Acceleration hotspots of North American birds' decline are associated with agriculture
*Published: 2026 Feb 26*
Human activities might have accelerated declines of population abundance, but
this acceleration remains underexplored. Using 1033 North American Breeding Bird
Survey routes, we analyze abundance change and its acceleration for 261 bird
species, 54 avian families, and 10 habitats from 1987 to 2021. We show an
average continent-wide decline of abundance of all birds per local route, with
hotspots of decline in southern and warm parts of North America and hotspots of
accelerating decline in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and California, matching
patterns of agricultural intensity. Overall, 122 species (47%) exhibit
significant declines, of which 63 also show acceleration of this decline, and 67
show declining per-capita growth rate, raising concerns for a large part of
North American bird populations. These findings suggest that bird abundance
decline is mostly accelerating, with spatial patterns of this acceleration
indicating that agricultural intensity may be a driver of this trend.
DOI: 10.1126/science.ads0871