Rusty Blackbird Conservation and Population
Conservation and Population
Rusty Blackbird Overview
The rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a widespread North American species. Rusty Blackbirds have shown chronic long-term and acute short-term population declines. Various estimates have put the loss at 88% – 98% compared to decades ago. It is hard to get accurate figures, but it is known the decline is great. The decline figures are based on breeding season and wintering ground surveys.
The Rusty Blackbird was recently featured in a report by the National Audubon Society as the North American species showing the sharpest decline. In spite of this there seems to be little being done about it so far.
Rusty blackbirds are ecologically distinct from other blackbirds. They depend upon boreal wetlands in Canada for breeding. In the winter they use bottomland wooded-wetlands. This is different from other blackbirds.
According to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park no conservation or monitoring programs exist for this species.
Population
According to the National Audubon Society:
Population Status & Trends: Rusty Blackbird populations were estimated at 2 million in 2004 by Partners in Flight. However, the species is decreasing by almost 10% per year. To put this decrease in perspective, Rusty Blackbird populations may have been over 13 million in 1965, an apparent loss of more than 11 million birds. The species is in the yellow category on the Audubon WatchList. Forty years of decline documented by the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey vividly illustrates the plight of the Rusty Blackbird.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 12:41 am and is filed under Conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
