Memorial Day

Today in the United States we honor the service men and women who died while serving in the Armed Forces.  This tradition began in 1868 as Decoration Day, honoring those Union Soldiers who died in the Civil War.  Since then it was renamed Memorial day and is observed on the last Monday in May.  We thank all those for their sacrifice and to their families.

Honoring the fallen prompted today’s post about extinct birds.  According to Wikipedia:

“About 129 species of birds have become extinct since 1500, and the rate of extinction seems to be increasing… Currently there are approximately [11,000] living species of birds, with over 1,480 at risk of extinction and 223 critically endangered.”

As I looked at this list of extinct birds I knew some  and never heard of many.  Here’s a link to a list to the American Bird Conservancy’s website of six extinct birds, like the Dodo and Passenger Pigeon, that you may have heard about but didn’t know why they became extinct.  https://abcbirds.org/blog/extinct-birds/

Dodo

You may have heard about a large number of birds in Hawaii becoming exticnt in Hawaii recently.  According to Wikipedia:

“The situation [accelerating rate of extinction] is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all known recently extinct bird taxa originally lived [were endemic to Hawaii]. Other areas, such as Guam, have also been hit hard; Guam has lost over 60% of its native [endemic] bird taxa in the last 30 years, many of them due to the introduced brown tree snake.”

Here’s an article from the Audubon Society titled, “Wave of Hawaiian Bird Extinctions Stresses the Islands’ Conservation Crisis“.

As you read these articles you’ll find that many of the bird extinctions were caused by climate change, loss of habitat, or predators introduced to the habitat by humans.  We can make a difference that help birds survive; let’s do what we can so we can enjoy them for many years to come.

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