Founded | 1994 |
---|---|
Type | 501(c)(3) Non-profit Organization |
Focus | Conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. |
Location |
|
Area served | Western Hemisphere |
Key people | Michael J. Parr, President |
Revenue | $13.8 million in 2018 [1] |
Website | ABCbirds.org |
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a non-profit membership organization with the mission of conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. [2] [3]
ABC is the second BirdLife International partner in the United States and works in cooperation with other groups and agencies, including The Bird Conservation Alliance, Partners in Flight, and the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. [4]
In Latin America American Bird Conservancy works with partner groups such as Fundación ProAves to purchase land that protects endangered bird habitat. [5] They are also working with partner organizations to reduce the conversion of coffee farms that offer habitat to the cerulean warbler, by helping growers market premium beans as cerulean warbler-friendly. In Colombia they have helped to protect wintering bird habitat by partnering with Fundación ProAves to help create the first preserve dedicated to a single U.S. migrant, the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve. [6] Also in Colombia, they helped fund an expedition in 2010 that discovered two nesting colonies of the endangered Baudó oropendola, one of the rarest birds in the world with less than a dozen known birds before the discovery. [7]
Several organizations, including the American Bird Conservancy and the United States Geological Survey, were commissioned by the U. S. Federal Government to study the US State of Birds in 2009. They found that 800 species of birds in the U.S. were "endangered, threatened or in significant decline", with more birds threatened in the state of Hawaii than any other region. The study found that 39% of ocean birds were declining in population. They also learned that conservation efforts are very effective at helping bird populations to recover, with positive increases in some wetland bird species due to wetland conservation. [8]
In the U.S., they are trying to stop mountaintop mining in the Appalachias in order to protect vital breeding habitat. [6] In 1996, after American Bird Conservancy threatened to sue the U.S. Navy over the San Clemente loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicicanus mearnsi) whose habitat was formerly used by the Navy for bombardment training, the Navy agreed to take steps to protect the species and its habitat. [9]
Cats Indoors is a public education campaign by American Bird Conservancy to encourage control of cats in order to protect birds from predation by cats. The objective of the Conservancy's campaign is that all domestic cats should be contained or leashed when outdoors or kept indoors. [10]
ABC believes that climate change is a critical threat to birds. Recognizing this fact, ABC supports renewable energy, including wind energy, and the transition away from fossil fuels. However, not every wind project is proposed in a suitable location. Some projects — sited in major bird migration routes or stopover sites — threaten huge numbers of birds. Some areas of the country are better suited to the development of wind energy than others. ABC has provided a wind risk assessment map to help identify these places.
This is an index of conservation topics. It is an alphabetical index of articles relating to conservation biology and conservation of the natural environment.
The aquatic warbler is an Old World warbler in the genus Acrocephalus. It breeds in temperate eastern Europe and western Asia, with an estimated population of 11,000-15,000 pairs. It is migratory, wintering in west Africa. After many years of uncertainty, the wintering grounds of much of the European population were finally discovered in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary, Senegal, with between 5,000 and 10,000 birds present at this single site. Its south-westerly migration route means that it is regular on passage as far west as Great Britain and Ireland.
The island fox is a small fox species that is endemic to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. There are six subspecies, each unique to the island it lives on, reflecting its evolutionary history. They are generally docile, show little fear of humans, and are easily tamed. Island foxes played an important role in the spiritual lives of native Channel Islanders. They have been likely semi-domesticated as pets, used as pelts, or for other functions, like pest control.
The golden-winged warbler is a New World warbler. It breeds in southeastern and south-central Canada and in the Appalachian Mountains in northeastern to north-central United States. The majority (~70%) of the global population breeds in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Manitoba. Golden-winged warbler populations are slowly expanding northwards, but are generally declining across its range, most likely as a result of habitat loss and competition/interbreeding with the very closely related blue-winged warbler, Vermivora cyanoptera. Populations are now restricted to two regions: the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian population has declined 98% since the 1960s and is significantly imperiled. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been petitioned to list the species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and is currently reviewing all information after issuing a positive finding. Upon review, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the petition to list the species as endangered or threatened presents "substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the golden-winged warbler may be warranted."
The cerulean warbler is a small songbird in the family Parulidae. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in eastern North American hardwood forests. In the non-breeding season, it winters on the eastern slope of the Andes in South America, preferring subtropical forests.
The golden-cheeked warbler is an endangered species of bird that breeds in Central Texas, from Palo Pinto County southwestward along the eastern and southern edge of the Edwards Plateau to Kinney County. The golden-cheeked warbler is the only bird species with a breeding range endemic to Texas.
The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation status: not simply the number of individuals remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, and known threats. Various systems of conservation status are in use at international, multi-country, national and local levels, as well as for consumer use such as sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification. The two international systems are by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The elfin woods warbler is a species of bird endemic to Puerto Rico, where it is local and uncommon. Discovered in 1968 and described in 1972, it is the most recently described New World warbler.
The yellow-eared parrot is a vulnerable parrot found in the Andes of Colombia. It was thought to be extinct up until April 1999, when a group of researchers that were sponsored by ABC and Fundación Loro Parque, discovered a total of 81 individuals in the Colombian Andes. It is currently enlisted as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Its current population trend is increasing, in part due to conservation measures implemented to protect the existing populations of the species. It is closely associated with the wax palm.
The fauna of Nicaragua is characterized by a very high level of biodiversity. Much of Nicaragua's wildlife lives in protected areas. There are currently 78 protected areas in Nicaragua, covering more than 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 sq mi), or about 17% of its landmass.
Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species. Over one hundred species have gone extinct in historical times, although the most dramatic human-caused extinctions occurred in the Pacific Ocean as humans colonised the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, during which an estimated 750–1,800 species of birds became extinct. According to Worldwatch Institute, many bird populations are currently declining worldwide, with 1,200 species facing extinction in the next century. The biggest cited reason surrounds habitat loss. Other threats include overhunting, accidental mortality due to structural collisions, long-line fishing bycatch, pollution, competition and predation by pet cats, oil spills and pesticide use and climate change. Governments, along with numerous conservation charities, work to protect birds in various ways, including legislation, preserving and restoring bird habitat, and establishing captive populations for reintroductions.
Fundación ProAves is a nonprofit environmental organization in Colombia established in 1998. Its primary aims are to protects birds of conservation concern and their habitats across Colombia.
Sage-grouse are grouse belonging to the bird genus Centrocercus. The genus includes two species: the Gunnison grouse and the greater sage-grouse. These birds are distributed throughout large portions of the north-central and Western United States, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the C. minimus species as endangered in 2020 and C. urophasianus as near threatened in 2016.
Rainforest Trust is a US-based nonprofit environmental organization focused on the purchase and protection of tropical lands to strategically conserve threatened species. Founded in 1988, Rainforest Trust was formerly known as World Parks Endowment. In 2006, then World Parks Endowment affiliated itself with World Land Trust, a UK-based nonprofit environmental organization, and became World Land Trust-US, as both organizations were dedicated to minimizing their costs in order to allow donated funds to flow to habitat conservation projects on the ground. On September 16, 2013, because of diverging modus operandi, and as part of celebrating the organization's 25th anniversary, the World Land Trust-US changed its name to Rainforest Trust.
Happy Valley Forest is a 6.48 square kilometre provincially significant ecological area, classified as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It consists of an upland forest on steeply rolling topography, various wooded swamps, and minor wetland areas. A few small kettle ponds are also present.
Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, known in Spanish as Reserva Natural de las Aves Reinita Cielo Azul, is a nature reserve near Bucaramanga in central Colombia. The reserve is set among oak forest on the eastern slopes of the Magdalena River. It measures 545 acres (221 ha) and adjoins the Yariguíes National Park.
Half Moon Caye is an island and natural monument of Belize located at the southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef Atoll. This natural monument was the first nature reserve to have been established in Belize under the National Park Systems Act in 1981 and first marine protected area in Central America. This is also Belize's oldest site of wildlife protection since it was first designated as a bird sanctuary in 1924 to protect the habitat of the red-footed booby birds.
The San Clemente loggerhead shrike or San Clemente Island loggerhead shrike is a subspecies of the loggerhead shrike that is endemic to San Clemente Island, California.
Westchester County, New York is located in southern New York, sharing its southern boundary with New York City and its northern border with Putnam County. It is bordered on the west side by the Hudson River and on the east side by the Long Island Sound and Fairfield County, Connecticut. The county has a total area of 500 square miles, of which 430 square miles is land and 69 square miles (14%) is water. It is an area rich in biodiversity with many parks and preserves. Literary environmental writer Alex Shoumatoff hailed Westchester County as the "most richly diversified deciduous forest in the world" in a 1978 The New Yorker profile, at the time estimating that it contained 4,200 species of plants.