December 1, 2022

I want to make sure you see today's CT State of the Birds news release and that you receive a PDF of the report, if you'd like one.

The link is below, and if you click it and then scroll, you'll find a place to sign up to get the report.

The official release event was this morning, via Zoom. It featured the authors of the report's 5 articles, with Patrick Comins, Connecticut Audubon's executive director, and Milan Bull, CT Audubon's senior director of science and conservation.

We recorded the presentation. If you'd like me to send it to you, just click HERE. You'll automatically be put on the list to receive it.

Finally, the report has gotten a lot of interest from the Connecticut media.

If you see or hear any of the coverage, please send me an email (you can just reply to this).

There are lots of media outlets in the state and you can help us keep track.

Thank you!

Tom Andersen
Communications Director

The start of the News Release is below. You can click HERE to read it all. Thank you!
News Release

December 1, 2022 — Connecticut Audubon’s 2022 State of the Birds report, released today, looks at the health and future of five groups of birds, in Connecticut and beyond, whose conservation history is tied closely to the history of environmental conservation in the United States.

Titled “125 Years of Bird Conservation Through Local Action,” the report marks the 125th anniversary of the Connecticut Audubon Society, which was founded in January 1898.

Among the report’s findings:

Bald Eagles have made a strong comeback and they now nest in 67 of Connecticut’s 169 towns.

Coastal wading birds such as egrets and night-herons made a remarkable comeback in Connecticut but their nesting colonies are now restricted to a mere 5 islands in Long Island Sound.

Shorebirds continue to struggle. When Connecticut Audubon was founded, their chief threat was market hunters. Now they are vulnerable to shoreline development and climate change. Nonetheless Connecticut has become a stronghold of the American Oystercatcher.

Ducks and geese have recovered across the continent from decades of wetlands destruction, and yet seemingly common species such as Mallards and American Black Ducks are suffering through hard times in Connecticut.

The European Starling, an invasive species long reviled for being detrimental to native birds, is in decline and might not even have been as harmful as presumed in the first place.

Read more here.

Here are the 2022 contents:

"A Look Back: 125 years and More of Assaults on Birds, and Solutions by Conservationists” & “Responses to Bird Crises," an essay and a timeline.

"Hats Off to the Conservationists Who Saved the Egrets and Started a Movement," by Milan Bull, Connecticut Audubon’s Senior Director of Science and Conservation.

"Connecticut’s Oystercatcher Revival Has an Increasingly Murky Future," by Elizabeth Amendola, Coastal Program Coordinator for Audubon Connecticut.

"The Decline of Native Birds? The Fault Lies Not in Our Starlings but in Ourselves," by Julia Zichello, Ph.D., Evolutionary Biologist, Hunter College, the City University of New York.

"Vulnerable to Wetland Loss but Responsive to Conservation Work, Waterfowl Are Doing Well in North America, For Now," by Paul Schmidt, Director of The Road to Recovery/Saving Our Shared Birds.

"Raptors Are Back and in Good Shape. The Effort it Took Was Enormous," by Brian Hess, Wildlife Biologist with the Wildlife Division of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

"Actions and Recommendations"