State of the Birds at a Glance

desaturated image of a shorebird wading through grassy water, with a u-shaped curve superimposed on the image — *Lesser Yellowlegs by Matthew Bode/Macaulay Library.*

The trends for our nation’s birds reveal a vital message. Birds are declining overall in every habitat except in wetlands, where decades of investment have resulted in dramatic gains.

Conservation works when we give birds and nature a chance. Let’s do more to save our nation’s birds and benefit people in every state.

graph displaying jagged lines representing population increases and decreases of 10 groups of birds since 1970 — Trends for breeding bird species by group or by habitat during 1970–2019, except for the shorebirds trend, which begins in 1980. For details, see Results section of this report.

At a Glance

Three Billion Birds Lost

1 in 4 breeding birds have been lost from the United States and Canada in the past 50 years.

70 Tipping Point Species in the United States

These 70 species have collectively lost 2/3 of their populations in the past 50 years, and are on track to lose another 50% in the next 50 years.

Downward Trends Across the Board

Birds across the U.S. show downward trends in every habitat except in wetlands, where comebacks of waterfowl show the power of funding and policy investments.