The Bicknell’s Thrush is a reclusive cousin to the American Robin. Smaller, with a brown spotted breast and a distinctive raspy song, it breeds in high mountains in New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont.
Scientists have documented population losses of up to 19 percent per year in some regions. The threats to this species come from multiple fronts. First, its mountainous breeding grounds receive a lot of precipitation polluted with toxic mercury emitted from power plants. This neurotoxin can affect nesting success. Also, the boreal forests where the birds breed are shrinking due to development, logging, and climate change.
The Bicknell’s Thrush is being considered for endangered status, and if it is listed, the U.S. will attempt to fight back the threats to its mountain habitat. This will be good for the bird and good for the health of the ecosystem.
But the Bicknell’s Thrush has a very limited wintering ground, primarily in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic. There, forests are being rapidly being converted to agricultural use. Now conservation groups in the U.S. are funding research and conservation efforts in the Dominican Republic. The goal is to protect the bird’s winter habitat while not endangering people’s livelihoods.
It’s an unusual approach to conservation but one that may become a model for many other species that migrate out of our country every winter.
Web Links
International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group
http://www.bicknellsthrush.org/research.html
Biodiversity Research Institute (conducted mercury research)
Boston Globe article on mercury in birds
Photo courtesy of Martin Lofgren, Wild Bird Gallery.com