Connecticut State of the Birds

The Connecticut Audubon Society publishes Connecticut State of the Birds each year around Thanksgiving. The report delves into conservation topics that affect Connecticut’s birds in the context of nationwide concerns.

It helps to raise awareness about the challenges facing birds in Connecticut and beyond, and informs efforts to protect them.

All Connecticut Audubon members receive a copy in the mail. Because the problem of insecticides is so important, we will also email a PDF of the report to people on our email list.

Connecticut State of the Birds 2024

The Next Conservation Frontier:
Protecting Birds from Insecticides

Click HERE to sign up for the CT State of the Birds presentation. December 6, 2024, 11 a.m., via Zoom. It's free.

Here’s an excerpt from the report’s introduction:

From the Age of DDT to the Age of Neonics

We’ve been in a situation like this before, and many of you remember it: the bad old days of DDT. Sprayed across wetlands starting after World War II, DDT killed mosquitoes and other insects—in the 1940s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and into the ‘70s.

During those years, the Bald Eagle population plummeted. So did the number of Peregrine Falcons. As for Ospreys, by the 1970s there were only about 10 nests in all of Connecticut. Those birds ate prey that had been contaminated with DDT, which interfered with the birds’ ability to lay eggs hard enough to withstand incubation. Generation after generation failed to replace itself, and the populations fell.

DDT was banned in 1972 and is mostly gone. But now we are in the age of neonics.

Neonics—short for neonicotinoid pesticides—are spread on lawns and fairways to kill insects. Used as a coating on seeds, neonics keep crops like corn pest-free. Or so say the sales pitches from the agri-chemical giants. What they don’t say is that neonics are 7,000 times more toxic than DDT. The news in 2019 that there were 3 billion fewer birds in North America than there were 50 years ago was a wake up call to conservationists. It focused attention on ways to reduce the major causes of bird mortality. Those causes include pesticides. And chief among the concerns in 2024 are neonicotinoids.

Connecticut State of the Birds 2024 is sponsored by

Connecticut State of the Birds 2024 will look at neonic use, its role in declining bird populations, in Connecticut and beyond, and what is being done about it.

It will build a case to help convince the public, elected officials, and government officials that the time is now to enact strict regulations on the use of neonicotinoids. This year’s authors include Dan Raichel of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Hardy Kern of American Bird Conservancy, Emily May of the Xerces Society, Murry Burgess Ph.D. of Mississippi State University, and Pam Hunt Ph.D. of New Hamshire Audubon. Local authors include Bill Hobbs of Stonington, Allison Black of Norwich, and Connecticut Audubon’s Milan Bull and Andy Griswold.

Connecticut State of the Birds is edited by Tom Andersen, Connecticut Audubon’s communications director, and overseen by Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation

Throughout the years authors have included:

Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Connecticut State Ornithologist Margaret Rubega of the University of Connecticut
Pulitzer Prize-nominee Scott Weidensaul
Peter Marra of Georgetown University, formerly the head of the migratory bird center at the Smithsonian.
Chris S. Elphick, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut
Kathleen Van Der Aue, chair emeritus of the Connecticut Audubon Society and former president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association
Viveca Morris, executive director of the Yale Law School’s Law, Ethics & Animals Program.
Danica Doroski, Ph.D., Connecticut’s State Urban Forester with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Robert A. Askins Ph.D., the Katharine Blunt Professor Emeritus of Biology at Connecticut College.
Min T. Huang, Ph.D., the Migratory Bird Program leader for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
David Foster, Ph.D., Director Emeritus of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University and co-coordinator of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative.
Brian Hall, Ph.D., the Harvard Forest and Highstead .
David Winkler, Ph.D., of Cornell University
David Mizrahi, Ph.D., of New Jersey Audubon
Carol Foss, Ph.D., of New Hampshire Audubon
Former Commissioner Rob Klee of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Tykee James, National Audubon Society
Amy Blaymore Paterson, the Connecticut Land Conservation Council
Stephen B. Oresman, former chairman of the Connecticut Audubon Society and former president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association
Bill Labich, senior conservationist, Highstead Foundation.
Sally Harold of The Nature Conservancy
Calandra Stanley, Ph.D., of Georgetown University.
Leah Lopez Schmalz, president of Save the Sound
Wayne R. Peterson of Massachusetts Audubon
Randy Dettmers of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
Jenny Dickson of the CT DEEP
Chad Seewagen, Ph.D., of the Great Hollow Nature Preserve
Jamie Vaudrey, Ph.D., of UConn/Avery Point
Sam Apgar, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut
Scott Kruitbosch, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute
Peter Paton, Ph.D., of the University of Rhode Island
Pamela Loring, Ph.D., of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Timothy White, Ph.D., of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Drew Lanham, Ph.D., of Clemson University
Former CT DEEP commissioner Leslie Carothers
Desiree Narango, Ph.D., of UMass Amherst
Morgan Tingley, Ph.D., of UCLA
Arvind Panjabi of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
Author Deborah Cramer of MIT