Birds in Virginia and nationwide are vanishing — fast
Birds that call Virginia's coast and mountains home are in serious decline.
Why it matters: Birds are indicators of the health of their habitats and signal early warnings of broader trouble to the environment, and potentially people.
By the numbers: In the past 50 years, Virginia species like Wilson's Plover — a signature bird of Virginia's barrier islands — have lost half of their population, per the North American Bird Conservation Initiative's 2025 State of the Birds report.
The plover and the Golden-winged warbler are now labeled a "Tipping Point" species, meaning they could vanish within the next half-century without urgent conservation action.
The cerulean warbler in Virginia's mountains has also seen its population crash in the past 50 years.
Zoom in: The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has said pollution, changing climate and "the sea level rise that comes with it" can impact Virginia's coastal birds.
The report noted declines in eastern forest birds, like the Bachman's sparrow in Virginia, are partly due to habitat loss from residential development.
Threat level: A blow to birds is a blow to the economy. From birding tourism to pest control and pollination, birds generate nearly $280 billion annually for the U.S. economy, the report finds.
The big picture: It's not just Virginia. Researchers tracked species nationwide and found declines almost everywhere — even among birds once thought resilient, like waterfowl.
Roughly one-third of U.S. bird species — 229 in total — are now classified as high or moderate conservation concerns.
Yes, but: There are signs of hope. Thanks to wetland protections, dabbling and diving duck populations have jumped 24% since 1970, while waterbirds are up 16%, per the report.
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4 days ago
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Birds in Florida and nationwide are vanishing — fast
Birds that call Florida's coastline and pine forests home are in serious decline, according to a sweeping new conservation report. Why it matters: Birds are indicators of the overall health of their habitats and signal early warnings of broader trouble. If these habitats can't support birdlife, they likely can't sustain other wildlife — or even humans — for long. What they're saying: A list of species that have lost more than half of their populations in the last 50 years is "like a hit parade of Florida birds," Audubon Florida executive director Julie Wraithmell told Axios. That's in part due to migration patterns, she said. "Florida has an outsized importance for birds of this hemisphere because we're kind of like a Grand Central Station." State of play: Coastal species, including the Wilson's plover, sanderling and least tern, have experienced steep declines, according to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative's 2025 State of the Birds report. So have woodland birds like the Bachman's sparrow and Florida scrub jay — the only bird endemic to the Sunshine State — as the pine forests they inhabit shrink or disappear due to development. Zoom in: Several of the declining shorebirds are nesting now along Tampa Bay beaches, Wraithmell said, including the least tern, Wilson's plover and snowy plover. So are black skimmers, a species that didn't make the list but that Wraithmell said is similarly struggling in Florida. Friction point: These birds lay their eggs directly on the beach, making their nests particularly vulnerable. That's why beachgoers may see areas of sand blocked off to pedestrians or Audubon Florida's bird stewards keeping watch. "People aren't expecting eggs in a small, shallow indentation of sand," Wraithmell said. "A single person cutting through can cause the failure of an entire colony." Struggling to find undisturbed beach sites, some birds have turned to flat gravel rooftops, which presents its own set of challenges. The big picture: It's not just Florida. Researchers tracked species nationwide and found declines almost everywhere — even among birds once thought resilient, like waterfowl. Roughly one-third of U.S. bird species — 229 in total — are now classified as high or moderate conservation concerns. Yes, but: There are signs of hope. Conservation efforts helped the breeding population for American oystercatchers, which also nest along Tampa Bay beaches, bounce back 43% since 2009, although further conservation efforts are needed to sustain that recovery, per the report. What's next: Scientists are calling for bigger investments in habitat protection — particularly on private lands and in partnership with local communities and Indigenous nations.
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Birds in Virginia and nationwide are vanishing — fast
Birds that call Virginia's coast and mountains home are in serious decline. Why it matters: Birds are indicators of the health of their habitats and signal early warnings of broader trouble to the environment, and potentially people. By the numbers: In the past 50 years, Virginia species like Wilson's Plover — a signature bird of Virginia's barrier islands — have lost half of their population, per the North American Bird Conservation Initiative's 2025 State of the Birds report. The plover and the Golden-winged warbler are now labeled a "Tipping Point" species, meaning they could vanish within the next half-century without urgent conservation action. The cerulean warbler in Virginia's mountains has also seen its population crash in the past 50 years. Zoom in: The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has said pollution, changing climate and "the sea level rise that comes with it" can impact Virginia's coastal birds. The report noted declines in eastern forest birds, like the Bachman's sparrow in Virginia, are partly due to habitat loss from residential development. Threat level: A blow to birds is a blow to the economy. From birding tourism to pest control and pollination, birds generate nearly $280 billion annually for the U.S. economy, the report finds. The big picture: It's not just Virginia. Researchers tracked species nationwide and found declines almost everywhere — even among birds once thought resilient, like waterfowl. Roughly one-third of U.S. bird species — 229 in total — are now classified as high or moderate conservation concerns. Yes, but: There are signs of hope. Thanks to wetland protections, dabbling and diving duck populations have jumped 24% since 1970, while waterbirds are up 16%, per the report.
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East coast fishery managers remain vigilant over status of Atlantic striped bass
Alex McCrickard, aquatic education coordinator for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, shows the right way to hold a striped bass for a brief photo out of the water, by supporting the fish with two, wet hands and avoiding contact with hard surfaces. (Photo by Evan Visconti for the Virginia Mercury) Fishery managers from Maine to North Carolina, and members of the public, met last week to decide next steps to protect the Atlantic striped bass, a valued fish facing consecutive years of low spawning success and overfishing. Atlantic striped bass, or rockfish, have been referred to as 'everyman's fish' because they are caught by such a wide population of anglers up and down the coast, said Alex McCrickard, the aquatic education coordinator for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Anglers can utilize a wide range of gear types and techniques to catch striped bass. Some target the fish for the excitement of catch and release, while others seek them out to harvest as a culinary staple. As a resource, striped bass are one of the 'most valuable recreati0nal fisheries on the Atlantic Coast,' said Emilie Franke, a fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages interstate fishery regulations. 'I think one of the really unique things about it is that the fisheries really vary from state to state.' 'The Chesapeake Bay is as important to the striped bass and its successful life history' as the fish are to the coastal communities and economies of the region, said Allison Colden, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's executive director for Maryland. Striped bass rely on the tributaries and tidal estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay as a 'foundational nursery ground' for the first few years of their lives, said Tom Dunlap, the riverkeeper for the James River Association. 'As a top predator in the Bay ecosystem, (striped bass) are important for their relationships with all of our other species as well.' An estimated 70% to 90% of all of the striped bass that make it into that coastal migratory stock start their lives in the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries. Climate change is a major factor contributing to the decline of striped bass, and it is one that is much harder to control than the overfishing that was uncovered by researchers in 2019. Striped bass prefer cool, wet winters and springs, and as those conditions become less common as a result of climate change, 'the probability that we are going to hit the lotto with the right combination of environmental conditions is becoming lower and more rare,' said Colden. Wet springs produce high discharge volumes throughout the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, which expands the habitat available for striped bass to spawn in, said Martin Gary, director of the Division of Marine Resources at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. At the same time, those rains flush nutrients into the rivers that are necessary for zooplankton to successfully bloom, a critical food source for striped bass after hatching, Gary said. If zooplankton are not successful, or if the timing is off between their bloom and the striped bass spawning runs, fewer fish will survive to bolster the future spawning population. Gary said the concern is that if we continue seeing consecutive, poor young-of-year classes, what will the stock look like over the next decade? 'We've got a double-edged sword where we're not getting very good recruitment because of environmental factors, and the spawning stock biomass is low, too,' said Pat Geer, chief of fisheries management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Virginia has seen two consecutive years of historically low numbers of juvenile striped bass surveys, while Maryland has witnessed six consecutive years of low numbers. The data is compiled in a yearly stock assessment to give managers a sense of the reproductive success and early survival rate of the fish. Juvenile striped bass populations low in annual Bay watershed survey Below-average juvenile stocks mean that 'once the adults that are currently in the population start to either be harvested or die out, there are very few young fish growing up to replace them,' said Colden. 'It's going to take a long time to rebuild a population like striped bass that doesn't mature until 5 to 7 years of age,' said Geer. But building up the spawning stock is 'something we can control overtime.' Gary said in the past, striped bass proved to be resilient, and bounced back after a moratorium was placed on the fishery in the 1980s due to fears of fishing the species to extinction. Within 10 years, striped bass were declared recovered up and down the coast. Although Gary said the adult striped bass stocks are in much better shape today now than they were in the 1980s, managers cannot depend on the recovery witnessed in the early 1990s now that a new set of challenges exists, 'especially in the face of climate change and the impacts of rapidly warming waters and changing marine and estuarine ecosystems.' New regulations were put in place last year by the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board, which oversees interstate striped bass management for ASMFC, to establish a consistent size and bag limit throughout the Chesapeake Bay portion of the fishery. Fishing seasons, on the other hand, are not consistent throughout the Bay, with management divided between multiple jurisdictions including Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission. Outside of shortening the fishing seasons, managers are 'really running out of options,' Geer said. Virginia already has a 'pretty conservative' recreational harvest season of only about 100 days, one of the shortest on the East Coast, he said. Currently, 'no-target' closures for striped bass don't exist in Virginia, meaning it is legal all year for recreational anglers to target the fish for catch and release. Virginia fishery managers are not proposing to add any additional regulations outside of what could be agreed upon this year by ASMFC, Geer said. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, meanwhile, proposed a new layout to the board Tuesday for its 2026 fishing seasons that includes a no-target closure for striped bass fishing during the entire month of August, to limit the recreational fishery's impact while water temperatures are high. But DNR also proposed eliminating the no-target closure that is currently in place in Maryland waters during part of the spring spawning period, thus opening the entire spring season to catch-and-release fishing. Maryland fishery managers said in their presentation to the board that 'the proposal is an effort to refocus our conservation effort on the protection of the resident population in the Chesapeake Bay and realign with our neighboring jurisdictions.' The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has 'for a long time' advocated for seasonal, summer closures as a way to protect striped bass during the time of year when they are most vulnerable to catch-and-release mortality. 'There are other fish species in the Bay at that time that are available to fish on, and we know that striped bass are typically pretty stressed during that time of year,' Colden said. Studies have shown that when water temperatures exceed 70 degrees in freshwater spawning grounds, the catch-and-release mortality for striped bass increases significantly, above the usual average of 9%, McCrickard said. The board's technical committee will begin reviewing Maryland's proposal before meeting again in August to consider what regulatory options for 2026, if any, it wants to approve for public comment. Members of the board and the public raised concerns at the meeting over the possible negative impacts that could result from lifting no-target protections currently in place in Maryland during the spring spawning period. Public comments on the board's options, which last year exceeded 4,000 submissions but ultimately didn't spur any additional protections to the 2025 season, would take place between late August through September, according to Franke, before the board makes its final decision on the 2026 regulations in October. Fishery managers are hesitant to continue piling regulations on a fishing community that they say as a whole provides many inherent benefits to striped bass recovery efforts. Anglers are the eyes and ears on the water, monitoring the species on a regular basis, explained Gary. The information they provide is vitally important to fishery managers. 'When people are fishing, they care about the resource, and they're going to be the best ones to spread the word to make sure people understand why we need good regulations that secure a promising future for the species,' Gary said. Striped bass as a species are currently declared overfished, however there is no active overfishing occurring anymore, as a result of numerous regulatory actions taken by fishery managers after 2019. Outside of regulating the fishery, angler education is another key to recovering striped bass stocks since usually about 90% of striped bass removals come from the recreational fishery. McCrickard works to teach anglers about the best catch-and-release practices to give striped bass the best chance of survival after being released. Anglers should always wet their hands before handling striped bass to protect the fish's protective slime coating, he said. Removing the fish from the water for an extended period is known to have negative impacts, so ideally a soft rubber net can be used to keep the fish in the water when preparing to remove the hook or take a photo, McCrickard said. When releasing the fish, McCrickard advises facing them upright against the current and allowing them to swim out of your hands freely when they are ready. 'Lactic acid builds up in the muscles during the fight, and it's essential for anglers to let the fish recover on their own terms when they are ready,' he said. There are currently moratoriums effective in Virginia banning the catch and possession of river herring, American shad and Atlantic sturgeon, which are threatened, anadromous species similar to striped bass in that they spend their adult lives in saltwater but migrate to freshwater rivers and streams to spawn. 'The common theme here is that our native migratory fishes are all struggling; they're all suffering; they're all frankly imperiled,' Dunlap said. Unfortunately there is not a single smoking gun that experts can blame for the declines. If there were, 'we'd stand a lot better chance of having greater success for now by bolstering these species,' said Dunlap. 'They're definitely suffering a death by a thousand cuts here.' Outside of climate change and overfishing, striped bass and migratory fishes in general are known to face losses as a result of unprotected water withdrawals. 'These industrial uses of the river could have the unfortunate capacity to suck in a tremendous amount of larval fish and fish eggs, removing them from that year class,' Dunlap said. 'That can unfortunately be just a wrong place, right time issue on the river system.' There is also increased sediment flowing into the Chesapeake Bay tributaries as a result of more violent and frequent precipitation events and an increase in impermeable land surfaces throughout the watershed. 'The sediment itself will have knock-on effects for the environment,' Dunlap explained, by burying aquatic vegetation, reducing the sunlight available for photosynthesis and changing the habitat for species that depend on it. There are also habitat access issues as a result of the construction of dams and road culverts that block fish passage, as well as the understudied threat of a large invasive blue catfish population that feeds on and competes with native fish. – Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@
