Changes are proposed to bird population status list

Eleven species of birds are on the list of Minnesota animals and plants being reviewed for population status — a list that ranges from no status to endangered. This is the well-publicized review that includes the moose. If you've heard about this review it's because of the moose, large and charismatic.

No one knows for certain what's happening to the moose. Ticks maybe, or warmer weather is a strong possibility.

Birds, however, present no such problem. We know exactly what's reducing bird numbers.

First, though, let's take a look at our successes. Four bird species — Henslow's sparrow, trumpeter swan, peregrine falcon and bald eagle — would have their status upgraded if the recommendations of the state Department of Natural Resources are adopted.

We've been very successful in reintroducing the swan and the falcon and rebuilding the eagle population. Swans were driven away by settlement. Falcons and eagles were done in by the thinning effect DDT had on eggshells.

The swan and falcon will be upgraded from threatened to species of special concern. Half of swan mortality is caused by ingestion of lead — shot and sinkers — found in bottom sediment of wetlands. There is no quick cure for that. Falcons, doing well, continue to deserve attention.

The sparrow, an anonymous grassland species, is holding its own, but only enough to be upgraded from endangered to threatened.

Northern goshawk, from no status to special concern. Forest management practices eliminate or degrade this bird's preferred habitat.

Boreal owl, from no status to special concern. The problem is steady loss of preferred forest habitat.

Lark sparrow, from no status to special concern. Housing development, sand and gravel mining, and invasive plant species are eliminating or degrading the sparrow's oak savanna and dry prairie habitat.

Loggerhead shrike and horned grebe, downgraded from threatened to endangered. Both species suffer from — what else? — habitat loss. The shrike's grassland is being plowed or developed. Grebe wetlands are being filled or drained or polluted by farming-chemical runoff.

The purple martin, no status to special concern. It has nesting cavity competition from house sparrows and European starlings, both nonnative species.

These recommended changes are likely to be adopted. Change will mean additional attention, "but little if any change in what we do," according to Rich Baker, the DNR's endangered species coordinator.

"Special concern species tend to be given more careful consideration when development or land-use projects are being planned than is given to non-listed species," Baker wrote in an e-mail.

This sounds minimal, but is there ever any question about which animal sits at the head of the environmental table?

The list itself is good news: We should be happy that it exists. On it are mammals (9 species), birds (11), reptiles and amphibians (5), fish (21), mollusks (23), jumping spiders (5), butterflies and moths (6), caddis flies (25), tiger beetles (2), leafhoppers (2), dragonflies (8), vascular plants (110), lichens (23), mosses and liverworts (27), and fungi (2).

And we should care about all of them. They are proxies for us.