Audubon View
By John Flicker

My most vivid memories of spring, growing up in Minnesota, were the smell of lilacs blooming and the singing of eastern and western meadowlarks. Now, when I visit home, the lilacs are still abundant, but I rarely hear the familiar song of the eastern meadowlark or the melodic call of its western cousin. Regrettably, the change is in neither my imagination nor my hearing.

A new Audubon analysis confirms what countless birders have long suspected—many of America’s most familiar and beloved birds are slowly but steadily vanishing. Nationwide populations of eastern meadowlarks are down 72 percent over the past 40 years, landing them on our top 10 national list of "Common Birds in Decline." Meadowlarks fared better nationally but not in Minnesota, where populations have plummeted by more than 90 percent in four decades.

The future of the birds featured in our report remains uncertain at best. While they are still relatively common, their populations have dropped by more than half in the past 40 years. Although they are not yet spiraling toward extinction, they will be spared that fate only if we act together to tackle the multiple causes of their decline.

The usual causes—sprawl, filling wetlands, plowing grasslands, logging, and energy development—all share some of the blame. I vividly recall watching as the last native prairies near my home were plowed under, blissfully unaware that this was depriving meadowlarks of vital habitat. Our report suggests that we can no longer protect these species or the environment that they—and we—depend upon by only safeguarding important habitats close to home. Like canaries in the coal mine, these vanishing birds signal that their future—and our own—is increasingly jeopardized by large and complex threats, from global warming to the growing pressure to turn marginal farmlands that are now protected into huge ethanol-producing monocultures. Audubon citizen scientists helped reveal the potentially dire consequences for common birds; only citizen involvement can address them.

Please help us insist that the upcoming reauthorization of the nation’s giant farm bill strengthens the Conservation Reserve, Wildlife Habitat Incentives, Grassland Reserve, and Wetlands Reserve programs that together can protect millions of acres of private land. Help us defend against approaches to biofuel production that unnecessarily threaten vital habitat for migratory birds and waterfowl. And support efforts to phase out the global warming pollution that is becoming the greatest peril to people and wildlife worldwide.

Learn what you can do in our Common Birds in Decline pullout section by visiting www.audubon.org, where you’ll also find an extended list of other common birds on their way down. Their familiarity ought to breed concern—and action. Together we can ensure a better future for people and for the common birds. And with your help, I remain hopeful that on some future spring day, my young grandson and I will still enjoy the sights and songs of plentiful meadowlarks as we stop to smell the lilacs.—John Flicker