Hawaii has a devastating history of birds going extinct. Most of Hawaii’s birds that have gone extinct was due to first the colonization of the Polynesians and then by the colonization of Europeans. Much of the bird loss happened from people hunting the birds, habitat destruction, diseases, introduction of new species, and competition for food. The Eastern Loggerhead Shrike is endangered and many fear that it will soon go extinct if nothing is done soon to help this bird repopulate. Many people have a theory to way this bird, in Quebec, might be going extinct and it involves the disturbance of critical habitat, head-on collisions with cars (because they are low flying birds), diseases like West Nile Virus, rise of predators, the weather change that seems to be happening, and pesticides may also be a factor.
There are some similarities that I found, in my research, that these birds have in common and they are the disturbances of their critical habitats and diseases like the West Nile Virus. The sad thing about their commonalities is that these factors can be stopped by us humans. The easy way to help the spread of the West Nile Virus is to drain all water from things that collect water in our backyards and/or any other object that might collect unintentional water. This will keep the number of mosquitoes down. The way that we can help save the critical habitat that these bird live in is have businesses reuse buildings that are not in use any more and have more locations where these birds exist protected, which only requires sending a letter with signatures of people that share the same thought as you. Many people are award of birds going extinct or birds that are listed as endangered or threaten and say someone needs to do something about it, but what many people don’t realize there is something that YOU can do and it sometimes doesn’t involve much hard work. : )
Extincted Hawaiian Birds
Great website on Eastern Loggerhead Shrikes
Law passed in the U.S.A.
Some areas where people have settled in Quebec greatly impact the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike. Since the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike’s habitat is commonly found among open pastures and other open areas, it is also common to see those open lands being taking away because of all the expansion of businesses and the building of homes. This in return keeps pushing back the birds further and further. Then when these birds move to another location to find a new place to live, they get hit by local cars because they are a low flying bird. Most of the people involved in saving the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike turn out to be many people from the Quebec region, which speak either English and/or French. This is the way it is because most of the people from Quebec have the most in contact with this bird. Much of the participants in saving the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike are older adults and with a small amount of younger people. Even though I don’t live in Quebec, I am young and I wish to join forces to become one of those members in helping the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike bird. : )
