It’s not a good time to be a bird in the U.S. The Watch List 2007, published by the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy, finds that 178 bird species in the continental U.S. and 39 in Hawaii are vulnerable to extinction. That’s almost all of Hawaii’s non-migratory native birds and more than a quarter of total U.S. bird species, including the Gunnison sage grouse, lesser prairie chicken, and masked booby, which makes us giggle. While 27 bird species are coming off the list this year, the total number of species on the list is up 11 percent from five years ago. The usual suspects are to blame: climate change, habitat loss, and a federal government that, says one report coauthor, “doesn’t believe in the Endangered Species Act.”
