The reports, big statistical analyses, are compiled since 2016 a coalition of scientific and conservation organizations.

“Declines are occurring across nearly every habitat, including grasslands, forests, wetlands, and coasts,” said Elva Manquera of Klamath Bird Observatory, one of the partners on the report.

Five years ago, an article in Science broke the news that 3 billion individual birds had vanished from North America in just 50 years. That loss continues.

The 2025 report found today’s conservation approach “is not turning bird populations around.”

Instead, American birds continue to decline across the continent. One-third of all species need urgent conservation to survive.

That’s many species from declining or delicate habitats like Hawaii, grasslands, aridlands, forests of the West and Eastern states, shorebirds and seabirds.

Ducks and geese used to be poster children of conservation success, thanks largely to the efforts of hunters. Their populations had been increasing since 1970.

But now even their populations are dropping. The loss of marshes drives their current decline. Bi-partisan support of “no-net-loss” wetlands policy has been strong since 1989, but this has never been achieved. In fact, the destruction of wetlands is speeding up.

Losses of grasslands and wetlands are upending decades of progress, with populations just 24% higher now than in 1970, when conservation efforts dialed in on ducks.

Tipping point species

A tipping point species is one that’s lost more than half its total population in just half a human lifetime.

The report ranks 42 “Red Alert” tipping point species. Some visit Oregon: yellow-billed loon on the coast in winter. The federally endangered Greater Sage-grouse, breeding year-round in Oregon and Washington. A few Allen’s Hummingbirds, summering on Oregon’s southern coast. A few scattered Tricolored blackbirds nesting in eastern Oregon. These birds are show “perilously low” populations and steep declines.

Shorebirds are group the most at risk. And of all habitats, the grasslands in America’s heartland — vanishing at a rate of 1-2 million acres annually — hold the most tipping point species.

The report noted more than 30 “tipping point” species whose outlook is barely less grim, including Oregon’s beloved sparkly-orange Rufous Hummingbird, Evening Grosbeak, Sanderling, dowitchers and yellow-legs, and gulls that winter on the Big River. All show long-term population losses, especially in the last decade.

Other species show long-term population losses, that seem to have stabilized in recent years, like Oregon’s Northern Pintail and pink-and-black Lewis’s Woodpeckers.

Why are birds declining when they make so much money?

Only half America’s birds “fall short of the thresholds for priority conservation planning,” and most of these lucky bastards show long-term declines.

Common blackbirds and sparrows are disappearing, for instance. They’re just not disappearing as fast, according to the report. “It’s like saying, ‘You’re not in the ER yet, but you’re not well,’” said Manquera.

Birding supports 1.4 million jobs. How is it that 100 million Americans can contribute $279 billion to the economy annually through the sport of birding, and still not save hundreds of species from vanishing?

“Birding is booming — 100 million Americans participate, supporting 1.4 million jobs,” said Manquera. “But much of that spending goes to gear, travel, and tourism, not habitat restoration.”

She continued, “Conservation funding is still dwarfed by subsidies for industries that degrade habitat. Policy changes often lag behind public interest.

“In short, economic value doesn’t automatically translate into political will or ecological recovery.”

She added, “The scale of loss is staggering. However, the report also shows that conservation works when we invest in it.

“Birds are messengers. They’re telling us something urgent — but also offering us a way forward. Their songs, migrations, and resilience remind us that we’re part of something bigger. And that we still have time to act.”

Scientists “are suffering a decline in public investment ... but their work, however obscure, helps us understand what is happening in the world, and that information helps us take better care of ourselves and the things we care about. The utility of a report like this is really at regional and national levels, providing an imperative to take action against habitat loss,” said Lindsay Cornelius of East Cascades Oak Partnership (ECOP).

Why do I care?

“If conditions are not healthy for birds, they’re unlikely to be healthy for us,” said Dr. Amanda Rodewald, faculty director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Avian Population Studies, in a press release this spring.

That was after 2025’s State of the Birds report recorded plummeting bird populations across the continent.

Birds “respond quickly to environmental changes, such as habitat loss, pollution, and climate disruption. When birds vanish, it often signals that the ecosystems we rely on for clean water, food, and climate stability are unraveling too,” EM.

An article in Science Reports found that encountering wildlife such as birds improves the mental health of people with depression. Another study found that a 10% increase in bird species was associated with the same increase in life satisfaction as a 10% increase in income.

“We know that left to our own devices, we’ll prioritize ourselves. It’s only natural. But humans are gifted with awareness of time and with cognition that helps us make decisions informed by knowledge as well as values. I believe people value nature and want it to be healthy. They want to live in a world with birdsong,” said Cornelius, earlier adding, “What is a world without birds? Not one I want to live in!”

Pines, oaks and government funds

Oak woodlands are threatened by other land uses, and fire suppression. Without fire, fir trees shade the oaks out.

“Our fire adapted oak, pine, and mixed conifer forests are under significant and immediate threat from climate change and intensifying risk of catastrophic fire, and so are the people and wildlife who live in and rely on them. I’ve been evacuated twice from my house for threat of wildfire. People in our community have lost their homes. So birds are not the only organisms at risk from the degraded condition of our forests and intensifying weather patterns,” Cornelius said. “As for recent changes to funding priorities of our federal government, I will share two anecdotes.”

Earlier in 2025, she attended a public meeting in Wamic, Oregon with Oregon Department of Forestry and [U.S. Forest Service], to learn about a Community Wildfire Defense Grant secured by Wasco County for defensible space and fuels reduction treatments in south county.

Wasco’s people average older, and lower income, than people living in urban counties.

“The forest around them, particularly the ponderosa pine, have been dying at massive scales due to drought stress and the insect activity that follows. Accumulated dead wood in our forests adds to the risk of high severity fire. People ... feel vulnerable and overwhelmed. But the USFS, which is responsible for tens of thousands of acres of affected forest on the wildland urban interface has been directed to refocus its energies on commercially viable timber sales. There is nothing commercially viable about dead ponderosa pine. These forests and these people need help,” Cornelius said.

Cornelius is seeing government funding priorities change. “This week, I received a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for fuels management on public lands. I was exploring with partners how we could deploy that money here at home when just hours later I received a second email suggesting we shouldn’t even bother, there weren’t enough staff at the funding agency to support getting a funding agreement out the door.”

Cornelius emphasized the importance of fire-adapted forests.

Partnerships like ECOP and Mt Adams Prescribed Burn Association prescribe burns and remove extra fuel from the woods, helping oaks and ponderosas grow. Some of the old trees they safeguard may be even harder to replace in another generation.

“Oak will resprout following fire,” Cornelius explained. “This is a wonderful show of resilience in harsh circumstances and ensures there is foliage, flowers, acorns, and shade for the hundreds of species that rely on them. But if oaks are locked into a shrubby growth form or early life stage by recurring high severity fire, larger, single stem oaks won’t develop as readily.

“Mature oaks provide more acorns for wildlife like deer and elk, and larger cavities that house owls, bats, squirrels, reptiles, and more. Oaks generally provide an inordinately high amount of resource supporting wildlife –protein rich acorns, lichen-encrusted bark that provides critical winter forage for deer, dead limbs housing insects that feed woodpeckers and reptiles, abundant flowers and foliage that serve as a nursery for insects that feed our birds.”

Big oaks develop at low elevations. Unfortunately, people like to develop there, too.

“Over the last century, we’ve lost habitat to outright conversion for development, we’ve interrupted migratory corridors and features on the landscape important to different species’ life histories with roads and buildings,” Cornelius said. “...But we’ve also profoundly changed the quality and quantity of habitats by suppressing low severity fires and by promoting high yield, fast-growing, valuable trees like Douglas-fir ...”

Good-bye to the diverse, wildflower-rich acorn forests, frequent low-severity fire, and beaver wetlands. Hello to neat lines of fibrous, valuable trees — alas, our new forests burn more severely, like pitch-soaked kindling, in fact.

“This makes sense from a commercial productivity standpoint, but it is problematic for the species that call these forests home,” Cornelius said. “...To be alive is to consume resources. We all need a place to live and a way to make a living. What we’re trying to do ... is find ways to do those things that also promote healthy, thriving nature and safe, livable forests and woodlands.”

What can I do?

Asked whether the 2025 State of the Birds report is cause for hope or despair, Lindsay Cornelius said “both.”

The report chronicled accelerating declines in most of the bird species of our continent. It also noted plenty of evidence that conservation works — when we invest in it. Advocates are using that to build awareness and advocate for funding.

“The science is solid on how to bring birds back. Private lands conservation programs, and voluntary conservation partnerships for working lands, hold some of the best opportunities for sparking immediate turnarounds for birds.”

Conservation in the Gorge

Columbia Land Trust, East Cascade Oak Partnership and other partners advocate for local conservation using this report.

They raised more than $105 million to protect more than 75,000 acres of working forest and habitat in the gorge area from development recently. That’s “an important part of the Pacific Flyway used by dozens of species of migratory and resident birds,” Cornelius said. They still need $15 million to “knit together” this “critical conservation corridor.”

ECOP helps organizations and individual residents save white oak and ponderosa pine woodlands, needed by “tipping point” species like Lewis’s.

One at-risk habitat in the Gorge is oak forest, home to Lewis’s Woodpeckers and other declining species. Once maintained by Indigenous burning, just 10% of all historic oak habitat retains its flowery understory. Fire suppression has degraded much of what’s left.

“A person might simply shrug their shoulders because an obscure butterfly or flowering plant or bird is threatened with extinction. Maybe you’ve never seen it, maybe you care but you’re more concerned about how you’re going to pay your rent, and besides, what can you do about it anyway? But, at what point does the potential loss of a single species signal a deeper issue that could threaten the very houses we live in, the air we breath, the crops we eat, or the water we drink? ... the decline of a species is usually a signal that something bigger is going on,” Cornelius said.

To save the most at-risk birds, she said, maintain connected, meaningful corridors of quality habitat and manage it to ensure it remains healthy. “How you do that is nuanced,” she admitted, “people have different opinions on how much habitat would be needed ... But we live in a community that is deeply connected to these forests ... That gives me hope ... Next time you are out and about, stop and listen. Can you hear the Meadowlark or Swainson’s thrush? They sing my favorite songs. May the sun never rise on a world that doesn’t hold them in it.”

Oregon’s birds

Biologically, Manquera said Oregon needs: Oak and riparian habitat restoration, especially in the Willamette Valley and Klamath-Siskiyou.

Fire-adapted forest management.

Protection of migratory corridors and climate refuges (places that retain cooler temperatures as the climate changes, like a cold, shadowed stream canyon).

Politically and socially:

Increased investment in Joint Ventures like Pacific Birds and the Intermountain West JV.

Tribal leadership and co-management, especially in oak ecosystems.

Public engagement that connects bird conservation to wildfire resilience, water security, and rural economic development.

How to help

State of the Birds’ authors list some actions: share the report and its infographics, using #StateOfTheBirds; make bird-friendly choices like placing decals on windows, keeping cats indoors, planting native pesticide-free gardens, reduce plastic use, buy certified bird-friendly coffee — and go birding!

Here’s some personal steps from Manquera:

Make your yard or balcony bird-friendly (native plants, no pesticides, keep cats indoors).

Use eBird or Merlin to contribute to community science.

Support local land trusts and Indigenous-led conservation efforts.

And politically:

Advocate for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and other funding mechanisms.

Vote for leaders who prioritize climate action and biodiversity conservation.

Push for bird-safe building ordinances and initiatives to reduce light pollution.

Humans, Cornelius is careful to say, suffer also — “in the reduced forage quality for our livestock, the increased risk of wildfire, the loss of birdsong in our forests, the loss of culturally important foods and medicines used by our indigenous neighbors, the loss of forage...

“The almost uniform downward trend of bird populations in North America is alarming. But we are an inventive people. We work hard to care for what we love. And I know people here care about nature — whether they make a living from it, recreate in it, or study it. So, as I feel when I hear the upward swell of the Swainson’s thrush song: I am hopeful,” Cornelius said.