State of the Birds - 2025
By Terry Rich, Golden Eagle Guest Blogger
Every few years, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative publishes a report on the “state of the birds.” The geographic scope for these reports varies. Some are just about birds in the U.S., and some are for all North America. Others address just species on private lands or public lands or some other component of North America.
These reports provide a snapshot of bird conservation needs using new data, research results, and other information that has become available since the last report. The goal is to tell us which species are most in need of conservation action so we can put limited bird conservation funding to best use.
At-risk Bobolink by Ken Miracle
Bad News in 2025
The 2025 report makes it clear that: 1) America’s birds continue to decline across the board, 2) the status quo approach to conservation is not doing enough to protect bird populations, and 3) we need better public policies and increased funding to implement proven conservation measures that help birds, habitats, and people.
Because I have worked on several of these reports in the past, I want to emphasize that they are firmly rooted in science. This is not a collection of opinions. It is not a marketing brochure. It is a collection of data, upon which various algorithms have been applied to prioritize needs.
A third of America’s bird species – 229 species – need conservation action due to low numbers, declining population trends, and/or various threats. This group is separated into three subcategories that more precisely define the problems.
Red, Orange and Yellow
There are 42 species in the “Red Alert” category. These species have perilously low populations and steep declining trends. Another 37 species are in the “Orange Alert” category – birds showing long-term population losses and accelerated declines in recent decades. Slightly better off are 33 species in the “Yellow Alert” category. These are species with long-term population losses, but relatively stable recent trends.
These categories reflect the data that shows bird population trends since 1966 – the first year of the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) – are not always just one long trend up, down, or stable. The BBS reports population trend data for the period 1966 to 2022 and also for 1993 to 2022. Analyzing these data for all species in North America is a major undertaking, so an update to the most recent year of data (2024) will take a bit longer.
Note: Volunteer for the Breeding Bird Survey. Two routes south of the Snake River are open. Learn more.
Additionally, 71 species are on the “Watch List.” These are species vulnerable due to small or declining populations, limited distributions, and high threats, but which haven’t yet experienced steep population losses.
The last category of concern are 46 “Common Birds in Steep Decline.” These are species that still have large populations and are widely distributed but which have nevertheless experienced large losses. Our reminder that abundance is no guarantee of survival comes from the passenger pigeon. Although these birds numbered between 3 and 5 billion birds – one of the most abundant bird species ever to be found on earth – we shot them into extinction.
In the category of “Low Concern” are 489 species that, fortunately, have not met any of the thresholds described above. Nonetheless, about half of these species also have shown population declines. Ugh.
Idaho’s At-Risk Species
Which of these species occur in Idaho? In the Red Alert category are Greater Sage-Grouse, Cassia Crossbill, and Tricolored Blackbird. Few wild species, except probably salmon, have made the Idaho news more often over the years than sage-grouse. They have suffered from over a century of abusive livestock grazing and subsequent weed invasion, and then the endless cycle of weeds-fire-weeds until it seems no habitat will be left in the end. Incredibly, this species is still hunted in Idaho. Maybe someone can write a piece for the Outdoors News on why shooting sage-grouse is good for them. I’ve found this hard to understand since we moved here in 1974.
Greater Sage-grouse by Linda Wentz
The situation for the Cassia Crossbill could hardly be more different. Here is a species only recently discovered by science, which occupies a tiny range in Idaho’s South Hills. The big risk for all species with small populations is that single events – a wildfire, for example – can destroy most or all of the species’ habitat. In other regions, hurricanes can play a similar role. This places them at high risk for a catastrophic accident. How do you guard against that?
Tricolored Blackbird by Louisa Evers
The Tricolored Blackbird is in yet a different situation. This close cousin of the Red-winged Blackbird has only recently shown up in numbers in western Idaho. Actually, we don’t know if they are newly arrived or simply newly looked for. Once there were some reports of this rare species, birders became curious and started looking harder.
Tricolored Blackbirds are colonial nesters who prefer hayfields. When fields are mown while young are still in the nests, an entire generation can be destroyed in one day. The solution is simple in concept – protect such hayfields until the young have fledged. But it can be difficult in practice when the owner of the hay depends on it for their business. Private lands programs, such as those offered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service in conjunction with private partners, can help here.
Orange Alert species in Idaho include the Rufous Hummingbird, Evening Grosbeak, and Bobolink. The Rufous Hummingbird was selected for the cover of Saving Our Shared Birds (2010) because it is shared among Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. They are suffering from habitat loss in all three nations, due to wildfires, human activities (cat predation and window collisions), and climate change. We can take action on cats and windows in every yard within their range. Please do that at your house.
Another species is the Evening Grosbeak. This bird was chosen for the cover of the Partners in Flight Landbird Conservation Plan (2016) because it is widely shared by the U.S. and Canada. It is also the most steeply declining landbird of all, with a decline of 92% since 1970.
The Bobolink is rare in Idaho but is a real favorite among birders. They’ve suffered massive losses on their winter ranges in South America and fall victim to hayfield mowing here in the U.S.
Support Bird Conservation
Only 223 species to go. For some we know what to do, even if the doing is difficult. For some we don’t know what to do. As I outlined in my two columns on funding bird conservation, we have a process for approaching this dilemma. If you haven’t contributed to bird conservation recently, now is a good time. You can reach Terry at terryrichbrd@gmail.com.