The latest update to a periodic assessment of U.S. birds has once again sent out a distress signal.
The 2025 State of the Birds report found 229 species, or approximately one-third of U.S. birds, are facing low population levels, declining trends or other threats that require action, according to its authors.
And 112 species - including bobolink, chimney swift, eastern towhee, greater prairie chicken and whooping crane - are classified as "tipping point" species and considered of high or moderate conservation concern.
Adding to the worries are declines among less at risk species.
“Birds tell us that we have a full-on emergency across all habitats,” said Marshall Johnson, chief conservation officer at the National Audubon Society, in a statement.
The 2025 State of the Birds report was released March 13 at the 90th annual North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
The work was produced by a consortium of scientific and conservation groups led by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The contributing groups included the American Bird Conservancy, American Ornithological Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ducks Unlimited and National Audubon Society.
The report comes six years after a landmark 2019 study published in the journal Science showed a net loss of 3 billion birds in North America in the previous 50 years.
The 2025 State of the Birds report shows those losses are continuing, with declines among several bird trend indicators. Six of the eight groups of birds have declined since 1970, the starting point for data used in the report.
Grassland birds have fared the worst and continued their decline in the latest report. Over the last 55 years grassland species have dropped by 43%, according to the report.
Notably duck populations, which have generally been a bright spot and remain 24% above their 1970 level, have trended downward in recent years.
The State of the Birds report has been published periodically since 2009. It pulls together data from a range of bird monitoring programs to understand how birds are faring across different ecosystems.
The data sources include the U.S. Geological Survey’s Breeding Bird Survey, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, and, as of this year, eBird Trends maps.
Much of the monitoring comes from citizen scientists who provide the "eyes on the ground" to show when bird populations are changing, said the report’s science committee chair Amanda Rodewald, faculty director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Avian Population Studies.
"The rapid declines in birds signal the intensifying ...
