Dear MEL Topic Readers,
These tiny creatures are losing their battle to survive. Here’s what we
can do to save them
Birds play a vital role in ecosystems. Many birds help to pollinate
flowers by transferring pollen from one flower to another. They help to
disperse seeds by eating them and then dropping them in other places. Birds also
eat insects, rodents, and other small animals to control their populations. So,
birds’ population tells us the health of ecosystems. Indeed, birds are the
canary in the coal mine. In fact, The Rufous Hummingbird, the smallest hummingbird
species that weighs only three grams lost two-thirds of its population since
1970 in North America. It is one of 70 bird species that is predicted to lose
another 50% of their populations in the next decades due to habitat loss from
climate change and human development, glass collisions, invasive species like
domestic cats, and pesticides. For example, the tiny rufous hummingbirds
migrate between Alaska and Mexico, over 6,000 kilometers each way. You can
imagine how they are affected by ecosystems.
Enjoy reading the article and learn about the roles of birds in nature
and how we can help them survive.
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