Birds of New York State
Table of Contents
	New York Species	Research Needs

Conservation

Species identified as endangered, threatened, or of special concern in New York, according to federal and state guidelines, are listed in Table 1. Note that there is no federal status comparable to New York's "special concern" category. Of the 455 species of birds reported from New York, 2.4% are currently listed as endangered, 9% are listed as threatened, and 4% are listed as of special concern. Locally extirpated and extinct species represent 7% of the state's avifauna. Between 1987 and 2000, ten species were added to the state list, nearly a 36% increase in listed species. At the same time, Barn Owl (Tyto alba), Common Raven (Corvus corax), and Eastern Bluebird were removed from the list, and Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis), Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), and Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) were moved from special concern to endangered or threatened categories.

Perhaps the greatest threat to birds in New York at the beginning of the twenty-first century is habitat conversion and degradation. Loss of successional habitats, such as open lands and shrublands, through natural ecological succession and human activities, affects 45% of those breeding bird species of New York that show significant declining trends and are relatively short-distance migrants (Table 2). In contrast, 32.5% of forest and woodland species, most of which are long-distance migrants to Central and South America, are declining. Unlike unregulated exploitation at the beginning of the twentieth century, habitat conversion and degradation are a diffuse threat, affecting species on both breeding and wintering ranges in ways that remain poorly understood. Trends in habitat change resulting from ecological succession are challenging and expensive to reverse or stabilize across a land area the size of New York, which has been experiencing a steady decline in land used for agriculture and an associated conversion of open land to woodland and forest since the early twentieth century (Stanton and Bills 1996).

This web site was developed by the New York State Biodiversity Project
and is maintained by the New York State Biodiversity Research Institute