World Migratory Bird Day's Slogan id "Protect Insects Protect Birds"

 

World Migratory Bird Day's Slogan for May 11, 2024 is “Protect Insects Protect Birds.”

The State of the World’s Birds Report released every 4 years shows globally 49% of bird

 species are declining and 1 out of 8 is threatened with extinction!

And, most of the decline has been by birds that depend entirely on insects.

Terrestrial birds that rely mostly on insects for their food sources have declined by an astounding 2.9 billion in the last 50 years.

And it turns out that the birds that do not rely on on insects for their main food sources have actually gained by 26.2 million!

Birds provide us with more than a dozen benefits!

One of the most important ecological benefits of birds is the fact they play a huge role in the regeneration of forests.

When they fly here and there, the tree seeds they have eaten are dispersed through their droppings. The fertilizer from the poop helps new tree saplings to grow.

It turns out, birds are the very best animals we have for controlling unwanted pests that eat our crops.

They eat between 400 and 500 million tons of insects every single year! 

For example, in its lifetime, a barn owl now may eat more than 11,000

mice and those mice would have consumed 13 tons of crops.

Unfortunately, as birds have been declining at an alarming rate so has our insect population.

Ecologist, Rodolfo Dirzo at Stanford University point out that of the 3, 623 terrestrial

 invertebrates, 42% are classified as threatened with extinction.

That works out to be 1,541.

Entomologists, Martin Sorg involved in monitoring insects, reported the following, “The

 decline is dramatic and depressing, and it affects all kinds of insects, including butterflies, wild, bees, and harbour flies.” 

Without birds, many of the ecosystems in this on this earth would not exist.

Scientist that pointed out there is a close relationship between the decline of insects and

 non-native lumber, non-native ornamental flowers, and invasive plant species, that

 continuously are replacing native plant communities in city landscaping, home gardens, and on farms.

It has been demonstrated that insects that are herbivorous prefer native plants and do

 not survive well with non-native plants. 

Planting as many native plants, including trees and flowers will help decrease the

 alarming decline of our much needed insect such as wild bees, honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, beetles and flies,

Lots of people are surprised to learn that flies are the most important pollinators after bees.

If we increase the number of native plants consequently we will increase the number of

 insects on which birds depend, and therefore begin to slow down the alarming decline both of the insects and birds!

A native oak tree for example supports 2,300 organisms., 326 different species, and 229 species depend on oak trees for their survival. (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)