The Messenger (2015) Movie Script
Once we believed that birds
were messengers...
between humans
and the supernatural world.
We would interpret the flight and
songs of birds to foretell the future.
We came to understand that bird
behavior heralds the change of season...
and warns us
of the coming of storms.
Miners once brought tiny songbirds
canaries down into coal mines.
When the canary stopped singing
and fell from its perch,
this was a signal to the miners
that their own life was in danger.
Today, once again, birds
have something to tell us.
Little jumpy.
It's an old female.
Oh, a repeat bird. Yay.
She's been tracked before.
She feels underweight to me.
We have to make sure we weigh her.
I think birds have
always inspired people.
They're beautiful to look at,
they're beautiful to hear,
and because there's a mystery
surrounding their disappearance.
When you consider the life
of an individual migratory bird,
you can appreciate
what the challenges are.
For the first time ever, we can
track an individual bird...
over its entire
migration journey.
This bird's about to fly
down to Brazil and back.
About 15,000 kilometers.
These birds travel
amazingly fast.
They'll fly from here,
the Canada-US border,
down to Mexico in five days.
It's incredible.
A lot of songbirds give
these little flight calls...
which we think are for air traffic
control to prevent collisions.
The first step was to figure out a
way to record these calls coming down.
I experimented with
shotgun microphones...
and then eventually to the
microphone that I built myself.
And that was one of the ways I
pieced together this jigsaw puzzle...
of the identities
of a lot of these calls.
This is a hearing aid
microphone element.
And they're quite small.
Uh, they're very sensitive,
and they have good, uh
very good quality sound pickup.
I mount the microphone inside
a two-gallon paint bucket.
I found out that this was one of
the cheapest, most efficient ways...
to actually record flight calls.
A lot of the songbirds
migrate at night.
The departure seems to happen
about a half an hour after sunset.
And the reason we think
they migrate at night,
these are small songbirds and there's
larger birds that will eat them.
We now have some evidence that
there's at least birds up there...
because we're hearing
these call notes.
There's a few
little chips happening.
And we have the radar image.
This is the last hour.
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah.
The question of how long
these migrations exist,
I would just say probably
as long as birds existed.
Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds
of thousands of years, definitely.
Aristotle thought, and it's
a famous quote, obviously,
that, uh, the swallows
go down in the mud in winter.
I think that's actually quite amazing
that somebody stood there and said,
"Hey, these birds are moving.
Where are they going?"
And really just realizing there's some
major phenomenon that we don't understand.
The question of how many migratory
songbirds die is an interesting one.
We can only estimate it,
obviously,
because we don't know how many
songbirds are out there.
Probably the best estimate
is that 20 billion migrate,
so half of them
don't make it back,
and that's a huge number.
On the order of 10 billion
die every year,
and we find
a few here and there.
We know that a few are eaten by
predators, by other birds,
but where the majority goes,
we have no clue.
Just a fantastic night.
Uh, lots of thrushes. Rose-breasted
grosbeaks, warblers, some sparrows.
There has got to be millions
of birds moving tonight.
And just this steady flow.
Just zip, zip, zip.
And it just goes on,
back and forth, twice a year.
You know, these birds
are tied to habitat.
They breed in certain habitats.
They go to certain regions.
So if you're monitoring
the population of a species,
you have this way of tuning in
to the condition of the planet.
The sky is filled.
The sky is filled.
But I know it's going to change.
Tonight is a special night because
of this memorial to September 11.
We're in the peak of bird
migration in New York City,
and that light is so powerful
that it confuses birds.
And under certain conditions
that can be deadly.
Couple of birds
up very high in the beams.
If large numbers of birds
are attracted,
starting to descend closer
and closer to the light,
we are able to
shut the lights off.
The thing that we worry about is that
birds may collide with one another...
or with some of the structures
that are around here.
The last thing that anybody
wants to see at this site...
is a bunch of dead birds
littering the streets.
So starting to see a little bit
of a different pattern on radar.
This is the reflectivity image telling
us how much is up in the atmosphere.
Definitely larger migration, more
intense migration than we were thinking.
This is the Bill Evans special.
It's a pretty cool tool
of the trade.
Hopefully we'll get a little more information
to identify what the species are.
Birds face an increasing
number of threats.
There are some major changes
as the world has industrialized.
Over the past century, the level of
artificial light pollution has skyrocketed.
Birds evolved in a world where
they're primarily migrating at night,
orienting with the magnetic
field, celestial bodies,
various other cues
that they can use.
Light trumps that.
A bird Whoa!
A very low bird there.
They are sticking around
the beam quite a lot.
There are certainly enough birds
up there to warrant being worried.
Hey, Susan.
There's a bird on the deck.
It was flying around
right at ground level.
- Around here in this area?
- Yeah. It was just in this sort of zone right here.
Yeah, I think it's time
to pull the plug.
Birds are down pretty low here.
We're gonna leave 'em on
for five more minutes.
We have to do it now.
We're already hearing the calls
drop off tremendously.
And we'll see what
the next period of light holds.
It's a warbler.
They're small, so they don't get
major trauma, but he's hit the window.
A friend of mine told me,
"Did you hear about birds flying
into Toronto's buildings at night?"
And I was so captivated by this...
that I had to go and see
if it was happening for myself,
and I've just never
looked back since.
By far the most common cause of death
to these birds is severe head trauma,
where the brain hemorrhaging is so significant
that they will die from that impact.
There's broken bones,
there's cracked beaks.
Sometimes the beaks
totally fall off.
Um, there's feather damage.
All right.
How many have you got?
Too many.
Now one thing that,
uh, we're noticing...
is we're picking up a ton of
Canada warblers, which is
- A ton of Canada warblers?
- Well, a ton for us.
I think there's
well over 20 so far.
Oh, great.
A species of concern. Yes.
There's little things we can do by
just changing our work habits...
that can reduce this problem
significantly.
How often can you say you flick a
switch and a problem disappears?
You turn off lights, you're
going to be saving birds lives.
Birds do not perceive glass.
What they're seeing is the reflection
of the environment that they're in...
or they're seeing, uh,
what would be a clear passage to something
on the other side of that transparent glass.
The more natural the environment,
the greater the threat.
One of our records
for daytime is over 500 birds...
over a six-hour period
at just two structures.
And you can stand at the base
of these structures...
and you just catch the birds
as they're falling.
You can bend down and pick up a bird,
and two have fallen on your back.
Oh, here's a second little guy.
They're so close to each other.
Maybe they were
even flying together.
It is now illegal...
that if you knowingly are killing
birds in significant numbers,
knowingly killing birds as a result of
light reflecting off of your building,
you are breaking the law.
What you have to do is
demonstrate due diligence.
You have to demonstrate that
you are doing all you can...
to prevent this problem
from occurring.
The key is treat
that glass with markers,
and you will be dealing with a great
deal of the problem right there.
The good days?
You can stack them up really bad.
You can have 10 or 20 dead
birds, one after the other,
and you find one live and that
one live you get to release.
And that just completely makes
the day for you. It truly does.
Songbirds are perhaps most
vulnerable during migration itself.
They have no choice but to come down and land
in peoples' backyards and in our parks...
where often they face
a real threat of mortality...
while they're just trying to refuel
and continue on their journey.
For the longest time,
we really didn't have a good estimate
of the total number of birds...
that were dying
due to cat predation.
When you talk to cat people, they
say, "My cat doesn't kill any birds."
Well, you know,
that's actually possible.
But some cats actually kill
a lot of birds.
You know, one, two, three,
five a week one every day.
So we actually undertook this study that
examined all of the research to date...
within the US, Canada, Europe.
We pulled together as many
studies as we possibly could.
And we were quite surprised
by the numbers.
We came up with a conservative
estimate of 1.4 billion birds...
killed by cats per year.
Cats have been around and part of
human civilization for a long time.
That said, it doesn't mean that
they have been moved to places...
where they are natural components
to these fragile ecosystems.
They're just not.
They are as invasive
as West Nile Virus.
They're as invasive as kudzu
vines or zebra mussels.
They are not natural components
of the environment anywhere.
There are at least
32 species of birds...
that are known to have been caused
to go extinct at the paws of cats.
Humans are ultimately
the issue here.
And so, we've got to come up
with some solutions.
We've got a conundrum
that we've got to deal with.
We can't continue to allow cats to
change the population size of wildlife.
I was just cutting
birdsongs into a groove.
I took the chiffchaffs.
And, of course,
a good track needs vocals,
and there's a bird
who sings very good vocals.
It's coming now.
Boo.
It's the "boo-boo-boo-hoo."
I think the water thrush
is singing again.
I'd like to see that tanager.
It's coming closer.
Not all birds sing.
If you think of a Canada goose,
they don't sing. They honk.
Herons don't sing.
Ducks quack, they don't sing.
None of those birds
are songbirds.
And about half of the world's
birds are songbirds.
And they all have this special syrinx
for making really complex sounds,
which to us usually sound
very beautiful.
Even though I do this
every single spring,
that first sighting
of a scarlet tanager is magic.
But there are individual species
that you don't hear anymore.
We used to have four or five pairs
of cerulean warblers in our forest.
Now I only hear one pair.
Same with water thrush.
So the species you can
still put a checkmark
but their numbers are really low
compared to 20 years ago.
And it's just a matter of time before I
go out in the forest one year and I say,
"Oh, no cerulean warbler this year.
No more water thrush."
Someday, maybe
no more wood thrush.
So we're almost there.
As soon as we stop the car,
we'll jump off and hide in the mas...
so that they have
the time to leave.
We should try to be very fast.
We will go to the border
of the houses.
We'll be able to see
the birds in the cages.
And we take some pictures.
We
Shit. What is that?
Can you see it?
Is it the police? No.
Okay.
It was not the police.
Over there on the corner.
We know many trapping sites.
We have made research and different
ways to locate these trapping sites.
Then we check them
on the ground.
We don't know how many.
We know that it's more than 200
and less than 1,500.
If each place captures
every year catches
let's say 10 or 20 ortolans,
we're talking about the entire
breeding population of Central Europe,
which is here.
From the beginning, it's
always clear to all of us...
that we will
have to face danger.
I'm here because I care for birds, for ortolans
in this case, and I will not step back.
If hunters are annoyed
and angry now
when we have done nothing it will
be much tougher in the next days.
But what we cannot accept is that
we leave the prisoners in the cages.
You cannot defend a tradition
which is not sustainable anymore.
And many of the trapping sites are
abandoned now because they cannot catch.
I hear rumors that people are
catching one ortolan in a season.
So if ortolans disappear from this migration
route, there will be no tradition.
And a tradition is not something
that must be kept alive at any costs.
About 105 years ago,
bird banding started.
And it was a major change
in research.
That you could finally have an
individual and follow this individual.
Although it was very difficult because
you had to tag 10,000 individuals...
to have one where you know
where it finally goes or dies.
Icarus is a new
technology platform...
that allows us to communicate
from very small devices globally.
You have a radio tag that is sending
a very short encoded message...
over about a 400 kilometer
distance to a satellite.
It's decoded
from many tags down here,
and then it's going
into a database...
where it's very simple
for everybody to check...
what has my animal done
in the last few hours.
Now with these global databases
that we have,
for the first time we can connect the
entire movement of life across the globe.
Because what we want are entire
life stories of individuals...
so that we get the entire
decision process of this animal...
and can follow it through
its entire lifetime until it dies.
But the most important question I think
that we have scientifically with Icarus
where do animals die?
Because if we know that maybe in one
population it's habitat destruction.
Maybe in another one
it's, uh, hunting.
Once we know where
the majority of animals die
and it may be
a multitude of factors
then we can start
to preserve them.
This is a mock-up of the tag that will
fly in 2016 on the first songbirds.
So this tag has to communicate with
an antennae on the space station...
in about 400 kilometer distance.
And you can imagine this is I
mean, over this distance it's easy,
but 400 kilometers is a large
distance, so it's a complex issue.
I mean this is really something that has
never been done before in that size range,
and it's really a complex
little computer that's on there.
Sort of like a cell phone
given to the animals...
so it can carry it around
and communicate with us.
Our community of researchers
will become global.
That we don't do local studies
anymore but connect the dots globally.
And it's In a way, it's the
fulfillment of the early promise...
of tagging individuals
with bands,
questions that were brought up
a hundred years ago.
It's a recapture.
See, it has already
a band on one of its legs.
It's a mourning warbler.
The female wouldn't have the black bib.
So we know just by looking at it
that it's a male.
I just found that band.
It was caught the first time...
in teak.
In a teak site.
Well, it's amazing that it came
back to the same place too.
It not only came back
to Central America,
but it came back to Costa Rica,
and in Costa Rica...
to Cartago Turrialba
and then to think that
in Turrialba,
it came back to the CATIE farm.
And within the CATIE farm,
which is, like, 1,000 hectares,
it came back
to the same teak plantation...
when we caught it
in February 2013.
So, that's what they call
site fidelity.
When I started working
with songbirds,
I fell in love
with the migrants...
just because they were
so tiny and fragile...
but also so strong
and determined.
I mean, they really wanted
to get somewhere.
We keep having problems...
with deforestation
and fragmentation,
and that's profoundly affecting the
viability of a lot of these populations.
Approaching a farmer just to tell
them that we need to conserve...
is no longer enough.
They usually have
other priorities.
But telling them that they might
be receiving a service...
that is allowing them
to save money, for example,
in insecticide
or in any other inputs,
might be a good way to convince them
to have more trees in their farms...
and to attract more birds
to their farms.
And that's where the birds and the
coffee berry borer story comes into play.
So, the coffee berry borer,
it's a tiny beetle...
that drills a hole
within the coffee berry.
It's originally from Africa.
It's a big problem because it
will basically live inside it...
and lay their eggs,
and that will destroy the coffee berry.
We drink the coffee,
we like the chocolate,
so we need coffee plantations
and we need agriculture.
So let's find a way
to do it better.
This is the coffee shrub.
Then we have some other
taller trees and banana plants.
Right here there's a cocoa shrub,
also with some of the fruit.
And that's the whole idea,
with different levels,
uh, 'cause it creates also different
habitat for different species.
We're building kind of a cage...
around a coffee shrub.
We suspect that birds are eating
the coffee berry borer.
So we want to make sure
to detect that effect.
So birds won't be able
to go in that plant...
and won't be able to forage
on top of that plant.
But then we have another one
where birds can forage.
What we've seen so far is that
infestation rates are higher...
within the traps that were under
the cage and lower outside.
We make sure that we have
good habitats for songbirds.
They will help us back by eating
some of the pests or the insects...
that we don't want
in the coffee plots.
Every single species,
or every single individual
of a species,
plays a role
within the ecosystem.
So by conducting...
or by fulfilling
that function in the system,
they're also helping in certain
ecological processes and services.
And the services are basically...
what we as human perceive
as something beneficial.
Pollination is a service.
Pest control is another service.
Seed-eaters also provide
the service of dispersing seeds,
and that's what is usually seen
as their re-forestation service.
There are so many links that we don't
know, that we don't understand, that
Especially in the tropical areas.
We don't know
how fragile they are,
and we don't know how many
species depend on another species,
and that's why all of those
ecological links are so important.
Something is happening,
definitely.
There are many different signs.
We should pay attention.
When we start
losing individuals,
or populations start to decline,
it's a cold, it's a flu
that the Earth has.
Um, these are
critical components...
that provide us with not only an estimate
of the integrity of the environment,
but they provide integrity
to the environment itself.
We are part of that environment.
Every time we lose a species,
every time we reduce...
the numbers of any animal
that's out there...
that's part of that important
tapestry, that thread,
we're reducing the environment that
we depend on for our own lives.
Tree swallows
are these acrobatic flyers.
They fly around
and they catch insects.
Most of the insects they catch
are things like mayflies...
and stone flies, dragonflies
and damselflies.
So when the weather is good
and winds are calm,
tree swallows are most happy.
Let's see who's in here.
There's six chicks and three
more eggs still to hatch.
That's quite large
for a tree swallow nest.
The parents would have to work
pretty hard to keep them all going.
I've got feather,
fecal, blood. Four
Four tubes?
Yeah.
4:13.
Okay.
We measure and weigh
all of our birds...
so we have a benchmark, a reference
point of where they should be at.
20.5.
Yep, 20.5.
Yeah, well, that's quite
light for a bird of that size.
Weight is an indication...
of how much fat
they have on them.
So it means that they're probably
not getting as much food.
The two groups of birds that are
declining really rapidly...
are the aerial insectivores,
which are in the steepest declines,
but we also see declines in, um,
farmland birds or grassland birds.
These are the birds that tend to be
associated with farms and agriculture.
Curiously, in both
North America and in Europe,
we're seeing
the same kind of patterns.
We started looking at
what the issues were...
and what potential threats
there might be to birds.
Wetlands are really
our starting place.
They're the
They're the gauge for everything.
Most of these insects
that you see flying around...
actually have a larval stage
that's in the water.
Mosquitoes, midges,
these are important food for the birds.
Neonicotinoids
are a group of pesticides...
that kill insects
extremely effectively.
They have a property that
makes them useful as a systemic.
And a systemic means that it's just
applied to the coating of a seed,
and the plant takes the pesticide
up with it as it grows.
So, in many cases,
farmers don't have to spray...
large amounts of chemicals.
They can just put their seeds
in the ground...
and have protection
to their plants.
So that makes it
very attractive for use.
The insecticide
in the case of canola...
is quite, uh, necessary
for fighting flea beetle.
Oh!
Oh, it jumped.
Oh, yeah. We lost it!
Like fleas. Like fleas.
There's quite a bit of damage.
There's got to be more than one.
And when there's
a high level of infestation,
you can have the entire crop
disappear in about two days.
I have fields here
only for the birds.
So they know they can
breed here and it's safe.
I like to see birds here,
uh, the skylarks, the pipits.
And they are singing
and-and flying...
high in the air and singing.
I like that.
We started looking at what the
issues were around neonicotinoids.
The insecticide is actually
very water soluble.
Perhaps these pesticides
are becoming more mobilized.
They're not staying on the seed.
Perhaps they're moving
into places like wetlands...
and possibly killing what we call
beneficial insects
insects that are not
the species of crop pests...
that are targeted
by the insecticide.
So we have to
actually make that link...
between the water
getting contaminated...
and the birds
not having enough food.
All but two that
I've done so far...
have had at least
one neonicotinoid,
if not two.
That obviously means
that the chemical...
was persistent
in the environment...
and got re-mobilized
into the water.
So it tells me that the problem
is getting worse, for one.
Um, that we actually
may have underestimated...
how, uh, pervasive
the problem is.
But even during spring,
before farmers have put seeds in
the ground that have been treated,
these chemicals
are showing up in water.
What we're seeing now
is what I term...
prophylactic agriculture.
The chemical companies
now are pushing very hard...
for farmers to buy treated seed
for all their crops,
regardless of whether
they need them or not.
I mean, there'd hardly
be a parent...
who sprays their child
with DEET...
when they're not actually going to go
outside and be exposed to mosquitoes.
Because you're worried, right? You're worried
about whether or not that is going to cause harm.
So why wouldn't we think
the same way...
when you apply insecticides...
as a blanket across
the entire Canadian prairies?
Many people are actually calling
the neonicotinoids the next DDT.
This is really
a case of survival.
If there isn't
enough food around,
life becomes very hard
for these birds.
And a habitat that does not
support healthy birds...
will eventually cause
the population to crash.
Well, the boreal forest in the
winter is a pretty quiet place,
and that's because it's a very
difficult place to survive.
But come spring,
the temperatures warm up.
There's a huge insect flux...
that just provides an amazing
food resource for the birds.
It's a huge ecosystem,
and billions of birds come every
year to the boreal forest to breed.
It's an amazing thing to wake up at
4:00, 5:00 in the morning...
and hear the vast number
of individuals singing.
I appreciate the energy
all the effort...
that bird took to get here.
You know the fact that they're
working day after day after day,
finding food, raising young.
They epitomize the struggle and the benefits
and the joys of, you know, just living.
Just the size
of the boreal forest
it goes all the way around
the Northern Hemisphere.
A lot of people
can't even fathom it.
In April and May, you can watch
carbon dioxide levels drop...
because the trees
have started to photosynthesize.
Oh, you're hitting a rock.
There we go.
Ready?
Yes.
I study the impacts
that humans have on birds.
My goal is to help identify...
the risks of development
to bird populations...
and what are some of the things that people
can do to minimize their impact on birds.
Yeah, this way, and you get a
better That's your best side. There.
Twenty years ago
in the boreal forest,
there was very little
industrial development.
Since then,
energy has come on board,
forestry has become
a much bigger player,
and so we have
a lot more heavy equipment...
that we have to put in the bush that have
different effects on different species.
What we found is that noise is simply
interfering with communication.
The males are trying
to attract a female.
And males might sing, and a female might
think his song sounds kind of funny.
So if you're not communicating
well that you are a strong male,
the female may not choose
to mate with you.
Increasingly it's going to be harder
for birds to find a place that's quiet,
and what the consequences
will be when that happens
birds are going to be declining.
This is a conventional oil well.
This is a one hectare
loss of forest.
On its own, one hectare
is a small amount.
One hectare a hundred thousand times
is 100,000 hectares of forest.
There's about three or four birds
per hectare in the boreal forest.
That's about half a million
birds' habitat...
is being lost to these
kind of things every year.
Add to that
that every one of these...
is connected to some kind of
pipeline or a road or both.
It's like a spider web
of infrastructure.
It's all quite small
in and of itself.
But it's when
you add it all together,
all of a sudden you see a
landscape that is very dissected.
The energy sector development
that we're talking about...
is not over just a small area
of Alberta.
It's over Saskatchewan, Alberta,
the Northwest Territories, northern BC.
And so the area we're talking about for
energy development in the boreal forest,
what's going to change is an
area the size of many countries.
Could we live without birds?
We don't know for sure,
but, you know,
without birds there's a lot of functions
of the ecosystem that wouldn't happen.
And that's one
of the fundamental concerns.
When you play with nature,
pull one piece out,
maybe that's a pivotal piece
and you just don't know.
Here in Alberta,
we have agriculture.
We also have forestry.
Now, we can add to that
the energy sector,
but they're all happening
simultaneously.
One thing is added on top of
another, on top of another,
and on top of another.
And the question is,
when is it too much?
When have we added up too much human
disturbance to the landscape...
that all of a sudden the birds are going
to suffer in a way that we don't like.
For me, the fundamental component
comes down to habitat loss.
A habitat is the things
a species needs,
and if we remove those,
and they're gone,
the species goes with it.
And this is
a black-headed bunting.
A beautiful male.
This bird has got
no fat. Zero.
These are migratory birds.
Be coming
from northeast Africa...
and will be going up into, uh,
either the Caucasus
or into Russia.
Somewhere up there.
This bird will stay here and feed for
two, maybe three days...
to enable it
to complete the journey.
Okay, you can go.
Aras River Bird Paradise...
is a very globally
important wetland...
because it's an oasis
surrounded by very dry steppe.
Migratory birds depend on many
different sites for their survival.
These birds are coming
from as far as South Africa,
8,000 kilometers away,
on these very long,
difficult journeys.
This area is
the driest province of Turkey.
Climate change is expected to
increase the droughts in Turkey,
in fact in some places tenfold.
Which means this area
will become even drier.
As it gets drier,
bird populations, uh,
that depend on those habitats
of course will decline.
Only 50 kilometers from us,
we have Mount Ararat.
It's Turkey's tallest, and it's a
visible sentinel for climate change...
because it has lost 30% of its
glacier in the past 30 years.
By the end of the century,
there won't be a glacier on the mountain.
It could also mean the end
of the wetlands at its base,
because they are fed
by glacier and snow melting.
All right.
Nice. We got a hoopoe.
In Sufi Islam,
the hoopoe is thought to be a
messenger between God and people.
So, to bring messages
from the otherworld.
Um, I need the JB rings, please.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Birding has been my passion...
and my life
for a long, long time,
and, uh, a world without birds
is unthinkable.
If this type of wetland
disappears,
then it's gonna be one more nail
in the coffin for migratory birds.
Okay, there. He's back.
He's in. Catch him, Bob!
He's in.
It's our first geo male
of the season.
- Look at his band number.
- Want to check his band number?
Yeah. P-2-1-6.
P-2-1-6.
That's who we're after.
I held this bird in my hand
10 months ago.
Caught him in the same house,
we put the geo-locator on,
and meanwhile he's finished
raising his family,
he flew all the way to Brazil,
flew around the Amazon rain
forest for about six months.
Flew all the way back again,
and here we are dj vu.
I've caught him again, and this
time, we'll take the geo-locator off.
This slides off the leg.
There you go.
Every bird has
a different story to tell...
about how fast it's flying,
where it goes, how long it stops.
The timer value is 344 days,
17 hours, 40 minutes
and six seconds.
I think this bird here has set a
world record for purple martins.
I have not seen one before...
get from Pennsylvania
to the Gulf Coast in only two days.
So, our purple martins are in...
one of the biggest rain forests
on the planet.
Right where
the red-eyed vireos are too.
I can tell you exactly what day
he started migration in Brazil,
which we haven't been able
to ever do that before.
Wow. Incredible.
Uh, we know he was back
on the 29th.
So at most it took him
25 days to zip back.
Over the hundreds of years,
that's worked perfectly well
until now.
Populations here are crashing,
and I think the problem is
climate change for purple martins.
Because they're
so far away in spring.
We saw with this bird that
just days before he got back,
he was still in Mexico.
And he has no idea
that the spring is cold or warm.
So we think the purple martins
the northern populations
have a really hard time
adjusting their arrival date...
to match
what the temperature is doing.
The timing of migration
is critical.
If they come back too early and the
weather is cold, they could die.
If they come back too late,
after the food has peaked,
the young will starve
in the nest.
Climate change
is a new threat for songbirds.
Now, they've been suffering through
pesticides and habitat loss...
and big cities in their way
for many decades now.
But this new issue,
climate change,
could be the straw
that breaks the camel's back.
This is a new stress on them.
We don't really know exactly
how songbird populations...
are going to be able
to adapt to climate change.
If we assume that up until now things
have been going down in a steady line,
you say, "What's the future
going to hold?"
If we keep going down that line, this
is where we're going to be in 30 years.
But we don't know
that we're on a line.
It could be that things
spiral out of control,
and all of a sudden songbirds
that are still common now...
suddenly disappear.
Here's a big bag
of ruby-crowned kinglets.
Ruby-crowned kinglets.
1-2-2.
1-2-2.
The songbird populations
are in big trouble...
all around the planet.
The species that were present
in people's backyards,
in their forests,
are just not there anymore.
Now, what we're seeing
with these songbird declines...
is 40 or 50 years in a row...
of the populations
getting lower and lower.
So we have
only half the birds now...
that we did back in the 1960s.
The reason we study birds
is because...
they are so linked
to their environment.
They respond so quickly in terms of their
population, in terms of their reproduction,
that we know
that if we study birds,
we actually are mirroring
the bigger problem.
This is real. This is
This is happening.
We are changing the environment
faster than birds can cope with.
So we have to either
stop what we're doing...
and think about
how to do it better,
or, uh, pay the consequence
of hearing total silence.
We think that songbirds...
are really like the canary
in the coal mine.
They are telling us
something that's wrong.
There's something happening to
life on the planet that's not good,
and we need to find out
what that is...
and how we can change it.
We don't want to imagine
a world without songbirds.
I don't know
if we would survive it.
were messengers...
between humans
and the supernatural world.
We would interpret the flight and
songs of birds to foretell the future.
We came to understand that bird
behavior heralds the change of season...
and warns us
of the coming of storms.
Miners once brought tiny songbirds
canaries down into coal mines.
When the canary stopped singing
and fell from its perch,
this was a signal to the miners
that their own life was in danger.
Today, once again, birds
have something to tell us.
Little jumpy.
It's an old female.
Oh, a repeat bird. Yay.
She's been tracked before.
She feels underweight to me.
We have to make sure we weigh her.
I think birds have
always inspired people.
They're beautiful to look at,
they're beautiful to hear,
and because there's a mystery
surrounding their disappearance.
When you consider the life
of an individual migratory bird,
you can appreciate
what the challenges are.
For the first time ever, we can
track an individual bird...
over its entire
migration journey.
This bird's about to fly
down to Brazil and back.
About 15,000 kilometers.
These birds travel
amazingly fast.
They'll fly from here,
the Canada-US border,
down to Mexico in five days.
It's incredible.
A lot of songbirds give
these little flight calls...
which we think are for air traffic
control to prevent collisions.
The first step was to figure out a
way to record these calls coming down.
I experimented with
shotgun microphones...
and then eventually to the
microphone that I built myself.
And that was one of the ways I
pieced together this jigsaw puzzle...
of the identities
of a lot of these calls.
This is a hearing aid
microphone element.
And they're quite small.
Uh, they're very sensitive,
and they have good, uh
very good quality sound pickup.
I mount the microphone inside
a two-gallon paint bucket.
I found out that this was one of
the cheapest, most efficient ways...
to actually record flight calls.
A lot of the songbirds
migrate at night.
The departure seems to happen
about a half an hour after sunset.
And the reason we think
they migrate at night,
these are small songbirds and there's
larger birds that will eat them.
We now have some evidence that
there's at least birds up there...
because we're hearing
these call notes.
There's a few
little chips happening.
And we have the radar image.
This is the last hour.
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah.
The question of how long
these migrations exist,
I would just say probably
as long as birds existed.
Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds
of thousands of years, definitely.
Aristotle thought, and it's
a famous quote, obviously,
that, uh, the swallows
go down in the mud in winter.
I think that's actually quite amazing
that somebody stood there and said,
"Hey, these birds are moving.
Where are they going?"
And really just realizing there's some
major phenomenon that we don't understand.
The question of how many migratory
songbirds die is an interesting one.
We can only estimate it,
obviously,
because we don't know how many
songbirds are out there.
Probably the best estimate
is that 20 billion migrate,
so half of them
don't make it back,
and that's a huge number.
On the order of 10 billion
die every year,
and we find
a few here and there.
We know that a few are eaten by
predators, by other birds,
but where the majority goes,
we have no clue.
Just a fantastic night.
Uh, lots of thrushes. Rose-breasted
grosbeaks, warblers, some sparrows.
There has got to be millions
of birds moving tonight.
And just this steady flow.
Just zip, zip, zip.
And it just goes on,
back and forth, twice a year.
You know, these birds
are tied to habitat.
They breed in certain habitats.
They go to certain regions.
So if you're monitoring
the population of a species,
you have this way of tuning in
to the condition of the planet.
The sky is filled.
The sky is filled.
But I know it's going to change.
Tonight is a special night because
of this memorial to September 11.
We're in the peak of bird
migration in New York City,
and that light is so powerful
that it confuses birds.
And under certain conditions
that can be deadly.
Couple of birds
up very high in the beams.
If large numbers of birds
are attracted,
starting to descend closer
and closer to the light,
we are able to
shut the lights off.
The thing that we worry about is that
birds may collide with one another...
or with some of the structures
that are around here.
The last thing that anybody
wants to see at this site...
is a bunch of dead birds
littering the streets.
So starting to see a little bit
of a different pattern on radar.
This is the reflectivity image telling
us how much is up in the atmosphere.
Definitely larger migration, more
intense migration than we were thinking.
This is the Bill Evans special.
It's a pretty cool tool
of the trade.
Hopefully we'll get a little more information
to identify what the species are.
Birds face an increasing
number of threats.
There are some major changes
as the world has industrialized.
Over the past century, the level of
artificial light pollution has skyrocketed.
Birds evolved in a world where
they're primarily migrating at night,
orienting with the magnetic
field, celestial bodies,
various other cues
that they can use.
Light trumps that.
A bird Whoa!
A very low bird there.
They are sticking around
the beam quite a lot.
There are certainly enough birds
up there to warrant being worried.
Hey, Susan.
There's a bird on the deck.
It was flying around
right at ground level.
- Around here in this area?
- Yeah. It was just in this sort of zone right here.
Yeah, I think it's time
to pull the plug.
Birds are down pretty low here.
We're gonna leave 'em on
for five more minutes.
We have to do it now.
We're already hearing the calls
drop off tremendously.
And we'll see what
the next period of light holds.
It's a warbler.
They're small, so they don't get
major trauma, but he's hit the window.
A friend of mine told me,
"Did you hear about birds flying
into Toronto's buildings at night?"
And I was so captivated by this...
that I had to go and see
if it was happening for myself,
and I've just never
looked back since.
By far the most common cause of death
to these birds is severe head trauma,
where the brain hemorrhaging is so significant
that they will die from that impact.
There's broken bones,
there's cracked beaks.
Sometimes the beaks
totally fall off.
Um, there's feather damage.
All right.
How many have you got?
Too many.
Now one thing that,
uh, we're noticing...
is we're picking up a ton of
Canada warblers, which is
- A ton of Canada warblers?
- Well, a ton for us.
I think there's
well over 20 so far.
Oh, great.
A species of concern. Yes.
There's little things we can do by
just changing our work habits...
that can reduce this problem
significantly.
How often can you say you flick a
switch and a problem disappears?
You turn off lights, you're
going to be saving birds lives.
Birds do not perceive glass.
What they're seeing is the reflection
of the environment that they're in...
or they're seeing, uh,
what would be a clear passage to something
on the other side of that transparent glass.
The more natural the environment,
the greater the threat.
One of our records
for daytime is over 500 birds...
over a six-hour period
at just two structures.
And you can stand at the base
of these structures...
and you just catch the birds
as they're falling.
You can bend down and pick up a bird,
and two have fallen on your back.
Oh, here's a second little guy.
They're so close to each other.
Maybe they were
even flying together.
It is now illegal...
that if you knowingly are killing
birds in significant numbers,
knowingly killing birds as a result of
light reflecting off of your building,
you are breaking the law.
What you have to do is
demonstrate due diligence.
You have to demonstrate that
you are doing all you can...
to prevent this problem
from occurring.
The key is treat
that glass with markers,
and you will be dealing with a great
deal of the problem right there.
The good days?
You can stack them up really bad.
You can have 10 or 20 dead
birds, one after the other,
and you find one live and that
one live you get to release.
And that just completely makes
the day for you. It truly does.
Songbirds are perhaps most
vulnerable during migration itself.
They have no choice but to come down and land
in peoples' backyards and in our parks...
where often they face
a real threat of mortality...
while they're just trying to refuel
and continue on their journey.
For the longest time,
we really didn't have a good estimate
of the total number of birds...
that were dying
due to cat predation.
When you talk to cat people, they
say, "My cat doesn't kill any birds."
Well, you know,
that's actually possible.
But some cats actually kill
a lot of birds.
You know, one, two, three,
five a week one every day.
So we actually undertook this study that
examined all of the research to date...
within the US, Canada, Europe.
We pulled together as many
studies as we possibly could.
And we were quite surprised
by the numbers.
We came up with a conservative
estimate of 1.4 billion birds...
killed by cats per year.
Cats have been around and part of
human civilization for a long time.
That said, it doesn't mean that
they have been moved to places...
where they are natural components
to these fragile ecosystems.
They're just not.
They are as invasive
as West Nile Virus.
They're as invasive as kudzu
vines or zebra mussels.
They are not natural components
of the environment anywhere.
There are at least
32 species of birds...
that are known to have been caused
to go extinct at the paws of cats.
Humans are ultimately
the issue here.
And so, we've got to come up
with some solutions.
We've got a conundrum
that we've got to deal with.
We can't continue to allow cats to
change the population size of wildlife.
I was just cutting
birdsongs into a groove.
I took the chiffchaffs.
And, of course,
a good track needs vocals,
and there's a bird
who sings very good vocals.
It's coming now.
Boo.
It's the "boo-boo-boo-hoo."
I think the water thrush
is singing again.
I'd like to see that tanager.
It's coming closer.
Not all birds sing.
If you think of a Canada goose,
they don't sing. They honk.
Herons don't sing.
Ducks quack, they don't sing.
None of those birds
are songbirds.
And about half of the world's
birds are songbirds.
And they all have this special syrinx
for making really complex sounds,
which to us usually sound
very beautiful.
Even though I do this
every single spring,
that first sighting
of a scarlet tanager is magic.
But there are individual species
that you don't hear anymore.
We used to have four or five pairs
of cerulean warblers in our forest.
Now I only hear one pair.
Same with water thrush.
So the species you can
still put a checkmark
but their numbers are really low
compared to 20 years ago.
And it's just a matter of time before I
go out in the forest one year and I say,
"Oh, no cerulean warbler this year.
No more water thrush."
Someday, maybe
no more wood thrush.
So we're almost there.
As soon as we stop the car,
we'll jump off and hide in the mas...
so that they have
the time to leave.
We should try to be very fast.
We will go to the border
of the houses.
We'll be able to see
the birds in the cages.
And we take some pictures.
We
Shit. What is that?
Can you see it?
Is it the police? No.
Okay.
It was not the police.
Over there on the corner.
We know many trapping sites.
We have made research and different
ways to locate these trapping sites.
Then we check them
on the ground.
We don't know how many.
We know that it's more than 200
and less than 1,500.
If each place captures
every year catches
let's say 10 or 20 ortolans,
we're talking about the entire
breeding population of Central Europe,
which is here.
From the beginning, it's
always clear to all of us...
that we will
have to face danger.
I'm here because I care for birds, for ortolans
in this case, and I will not step back.
If hunters are annoyed
and angry now
when we have done nothing it will
be much tougher in the next days.
But what we cannot accept is that
we leave the prisoners in the cages.
You cannot defend a tradition
which is not sustainable anymore.
And many of the trapping sites are
abandoned now because they cannot catch.
I hear rumors that people are
catching one ortolan in a season.
So if ortolans disappear from this migration
route, there will be no tradition.
And a tradition is not something
that must be kept alive at any costs.
About 105 years ago,
bird banding started.
And it was a major change
in research.
That you could finally have an
individual and follow this individual.
Although it was very difficult because
you had to tag 10,000 individuals...
to have one where you know
where it finally goes or dies.
Icarus is a new
technology platform...
that allows us to communicate
from very small devices globally.
You have a radio tag that is sending
a very short encoded message...
over about a 400 kilometer
distance to a satellite.
It's decoded
from many tags down here,
and then it's going
into a database...
where it's very simple
for everybody to check...
what has my animal done
in the last few hours.
Now with these global databases
that we have,
for the first time we can connect the
entire movement of life across the globe.
Because what we want are entire
life stories of individuals...
so that we get the entire
decision process of this animal...
and can follow it through
its entire lifetime until it dies.
But the most important question I think
that we have scientifically with Icarus
where do animals die?
Because if we know that maybe in one
population it's habitat destruction.
Maybe in another one
it's, uh, hunting.
Once we know where
the majority of animals die
and it may be
a multitude of factors
then we can start
to preserve them.
This is a mock-up of the tag that will
fly in 2016 on the first songbirds.
So this tag has to communicate with
an antennae on the space station...
in about 400 kilometer distance.
And you can imagine this is I
mean, over this distance it's easy,
but 400 kilometers is a large
distance, so it's a complex issue.
I mean this is really something that has
never been done before in that size range,
and it's really a complex
little computer that's on there.
Sort of like a cell phone
given to the animals...
so it can carry it around
and communicate with us.
Our community of researchers
will become global.
That we don't do local studies
anymore but connect the dots globally.
And it's In a way, it's the
fulfillment of the early promise...
of tagging individuals
with bands,
questions that were brought up
a hundred years ago.
It's a recapture.
See, it has already
a band on one of its legs.
It's a mourning warbler.
The female wouldn't have the black bib.
So we know just by looking at it
that it's a male.
I just found that band.
It was caught the first time...
in teak.
In a teak site.
Well, it's amazing that it came
back to the same place too.
It not only came back
to Central America,
but it came back to Costa Rica,
and in Costa Rica...
to Cartago Turrialba
and then to think that
in Turrialba,
it came back to the CATIE farm.
And within the CATIE farm,
which is, like, 1,000 hectares,
it came back
to the same teak plantation...
when we caught it
in February 2013.
So, that's what they call
site fidelity.
When I started working
with songbirds,
I fell in love
with the migrants...
just because they were
so tiny and fragile...
but also so strong
and determined.
I mean, they really wanted
to get somewhere.
We keep having problems...
with deforestation
and fragmentation,
and that's profoundly affecting the
viability of a lot of these populations.
Approaching a farmer just to tell
them that we need to conserve...
is no longer enough.
They usually have
other priorities.
But telling them that they might
be receiving a service...
that is allowing them
to save money, for example,
in insecticide
or in any other inputs,
might be a good way to convince them
to have more trees in their farms...
and to attract more birds
to their farms.
And that's where the birds and the
coffee berry borer story comes into play.
So, the coffee berry borer,
it's a tiny beetle...
that drills a hole
within the coffee berry.
It's originally from Africa.
It's a big problem because it
will basically live inside it...
and lay their eggs,
and that will destroy the coffee berry.
We drink the coffee,
we like the chocolate,
so we need coffee plantations
and we need agriculture.
So let's find a way
to do it better.
This is the coffee shrub.
Then we have some other
taller trees and banana plants.
Right here there's a cocoa shrub,
also with some of the fruit.
And that's the whole idea,
with different levels,
uh, 'cause it creates also different
habitat for different species.
We're building kind of a cage...
around a coffee shrub.
We suspect that birds are eating
the coffee berry borer.
So we want to make sure
to detect that effect.
So birds won't be able
to go in that plant...
and won't be able to forage
on top of that plant.
But then we have another one
where birds can forage.
What we've seen so far is that
infestation rates are higher...
within the traps that were under
the cage and lower outside.
We make sure that we have
good habitats for songbirds.
They will help us back by eating
some of the pests or the insects...
that we don't want
in the coffee plots.
Every single species,
or every single individual
of a species,
plays a role
within the ecosystem.
So by conducting...
or by fulfilling
that function in the system,
they're also helping in certain
ecological processes and services.
And the services are basically...
what we as human perceive
as something beneficial.
Pollination is a service.
Pest control is another service.
Seed-eaters also provide
the service of dispersing seeds,
and that's what is usually seen
as their re-forestation service.
There are so many links that we don't
know, that we don't understand, that
Especially in the tropical areas.
We don't know
how fragile they are,
and we don't know how many
species depend on another species,
and that's why all of those
ecological links are so important.
Something is happening,
definitely.
There are many different signs.
We should pay attention.
When we start
losing individuals,
or populations start to decline,
it's a cold, it's a flu
that the Earth has.
Um, these are
critical components...
that provide us with not only an estimate
of the integrity of the environment,
but they provide integrity
to the environment itself.
We are part of that environment.
Every time we lose a species,
every time we reduce...
the numbers of any animal
that's out there...
that's part of that important
tapestry, that thread,
we're reducing the environment that
we depend on for our own lives.
Tree swallows
are these acrobatic flyers.
They fly around
and they catch insects.
Most of the insects they catch
are things like mayflies...
and stone flies, dragonflies
and damselflies.
So when the weather is good
and winds are calm,
tree swallows are most happy.
Let's see who's in here.
There's six chicks and three
more eggs still to hatch.
That's quite large
for a tree swallow nest.
The parents would have to work
pretty hard to keep them all going.
I've got feather,
fecal, blood. Four
Four tubes?
Yeah.
4:13.
Okay.
We measure and weigh
all of our birds...
so we have a benchmark, a reference
point of where they should be at.
20.5.
Yep, 20.5.
Yeah, well, that's quite
light for a bird of that size.
Weight is an indication...
of how much fat
they have on them.
So it means that they're probably
not getting as much food.
The two groups of birds that are
declining really rapidly...
are the aerial insectivores,
which are in the steepest declines,
but we also see declines in, um,
farmland birds or grassland birds.
These are the birds that tend to be
associated with farms and agriculture.
Curiously, in both
North America and in Europe,
we're seeing
the same kind of patterns.
We started looking at
what the issues were...
and what potential threats
there might be to birds.
Wetlands are really
our starting place.
They're the
They're the gauge for everything.
Most of these insects
that you see flying around...
actually have a larval stage
that's in the water.
Mosquitoes, midges,
these are important food for the birds.
Neonicotinoids
are a group of pesticides...
that kill insects
extremely effectively.
They have a property that
makes them useful as a systemic.
And a systemic means that it's just
applied to the coating of a seed,
and the plant takes the pesticide
up with it as it grows.
So, in many cases,
farmers don't have to spray...
large amounts of chemicals.
They can just put their seeds
in the ground...
and have protection
to their plants.
So that makes it
very attractive for use.
The insecticide
in the case of canola...
is quite, uh, necessary
for fighting flea beetle.
Oh!
Oh, it jumped.
Oh, yeah. We lost it!
Like fleas. Like fleas.
There's quite a bit of damage.
There's got to be more than one.
And when there's
a high level of infestation,
you can have the entire crop
disappear in about two days.
I have fields here
only for the birds.
So they know they can
breed here and it's safe.
I like to see birds here,
uh, the skylarks, the pipits.
And they are singing
and-and flying...
high in the air and singing.
I like that.
We started looking at what the
issues were around neonicotinoids.
The insecticide is actually
very water soluble.
Perhaps these pesticides
are becoming more mobilized.
They're not staying on the seed.
Perhaps they're moving
into places like wetlands...
and possibly killing what we call
beneficial insects
insects that are not
the species of crop pests...
that are targeted
by the insecticide.
So we have to
actually make that link...
between the water
getting contaminated...
and the birds
not having enough food.
All but two that
I've done so far...
have had at least
one neonicotinoid,
if not two.
That obviously means
that the chemical...
was persistent
in the environment...
and got re-mobilized
into the water.
So it tells me that the problem
is getting worse, for one.
Um, that we actually
may have underestimated...
how, uh, pervasive
the problem is.
But even during spring,
before farmers have put seeds in
the ground that have been treated,
these chemicals
are showing up in water.
What we're seeing now
is what I term...
prophylactic agriculture.
The chemical companies
now are pushing very hard...
for farmers to buy treated seed
for all their crops,
regardless of whether
they need them or not.
I mean, there'd hardly
be a parent...
who sprays their child
with DEET...
when they're not actually going to go
outside and be exposed to mosquitoes.
Because you're worried, right? You're worried
about whether or not that is going to cause harm.
So why wouldn't we think
the same way...
when you apply insecticides...
as a blanket across
the entire Canadian prairies?
Many people are actually calling
the neonicotinoids the next DDT.
This is really
a case of survival.
If there isn't
enough food around,
life becomes very hard
for these birds.
And a habitat that does not
support healthy birds...
will eventually cause
the population to crash.
Well, the boreal forest in the
winter is a pretty quiet place,
and that's because it's a very
difficult place to survive.
But come spring,
the temperatures warm up.
There's a huge insect flux...
that just provides an amazing
food resource for the birds.
It's a huge ecosystem,
and billions of birds come every
year to the boreal forest to breed.
It's an amazing thing to wake up at
4:00, 5:00 in the morning...
and hear the vast number
of individuals singing.
I appreciate the energy
all the effort...
that bird took to get here.
You know the fact that they're
working day after day after day,
finding food, raising young.
They epitomize the struggle and the benefits
and the joys of, you know, just living.
Just the size
of the boreal forest
it goes all the way around
the Northern Hemisphere.
A lot of people
can't even fathom it.
In April and May, you can watch
carbon dioxide levels drop...
because the trees
have started to photosynthesize.
Oh, you're hitting a rock.
There we go.
Ready?
Yes.
I study the impacts
that humans have on birds.
My goal is to help identify...
the risks of development
to bird populations...
and what are some of the things that people
can do to minimize their impact on birds.
Yeah, this way, and you get a
better That's your best side. There.
Twenty years ago
in the boreal forest,
there was very little
industrial development.
Since then,
energy has come on board,
forestry has become
a much bigger player,
and so we have
a lot more heavy equipment...
that we have to put in the bush that have
different effects on different species.
What we found is that noise is simply
interfering with communication.
The males are trying
to attract a female.
And males might sing, and a female might
think his song sounds kind of funny.
So if you're not communicating
well that you are a strong male,
the female may not choose
to mate with you.
Increasingly it's going to be harder
for birds to find a place that's quiet,
and what the consequences
will be when that happens
birds are going to be declining.
This is a conventional oil well.
This is a one hectare
loss of forest.
On its own, one hectare
is a small amount.
One hectare a hundred thousand times
is 100,000 hectares of forest.
There's about three or four birds
per hectare in the boreal forest.
That's about half a million
birds' habitat...
is being lost to these
kind of things every year.
Add to that
that every one of these...
is connected to some kind of
pipeline or a road or both.
It's like a spider web
of infrastructure.
It's all quite small
in and of itself.
But it's when
you add it all together,
all of a sudden you see a
landscape that is very dissected.
The energy sector development
that we're talking about...
is not over just a small area
of Alberta.
It's over Saskatchewan, Alberta,
the Northwest Territories, northern BC.
And so the area we're talking about for
energy development in the boreal forest,
what's going to change is an
area the size of many countries.
Could we live without birds?
We don't know for sure,
but, you know,
without birds there's a lot of functions
of the ecosystem that wouldn't happen.
And that's one
of the fundamental concerns.
When you play with nature,
pull one piece out,
maybe that's a pivotal piece
and you just don't know.
Here in Alberta,
we have agriculture.
We also have forestry.
Now, we can add to that
the energy sector,
but they're all happening
simultaneously.
One thing is added on top of
another, on top of another,
and on top of another.
And the question is,
when is it too much?
When have we added up too much human
disturbance to the landscape...
that all of a sudden the birds are going
to suffer in a way that we don't like.
For me, the fundamental component
comes down to habitat loss.
A habitat is the things
a species needs,
and if we remove those,
and they're gone,
the species goes with it.
And this is
a black-headed bunting.
A beautiful male.
This bird has got
no fat. Zero.
These are migratory birds.
Be coming
from northeast Africa...
and will be going up into, uh,
either the Caucasus
or into Russia.
Somewhere up there.
This bird will stay here and feed for
two, maybe three days...
to enable it
to complete the journey.
Okay, you can go.
Aras River Bird Paradise...
is a very globally
important wetland...
because it's an oasis
surrounded by very dry steppe.
Migratory birds depend on many
different sites for their survival.
These birds are coming
from as far as South Africa,
8,000 kilometers away,
on these very long,
difficult journeys.
This area is
the driest province of Turkey.
Climate change is expected to
increase the droughts in Turkey,
in fact in some places tenfold.
Which means this area
will become even drier.
As it gets drier,
bird populations, uh,
that depend on those habitats
of course will decline.
Only 50 kilometers from us,
we have Mount Ararat.
It's Turkey's tallest, and it's a
visible sentinel for climate change...
because it has lost 30% of its
glacier in the past 30 years.
By the end of the century,
there won't be a glacier on the mountain.
It could also mean the end
of the wetlands at its base,
because they are fed
by glacier and snow melting.
All right.
Nice. We got a hoopoe.
In Sufi Islam,
the hoopoe is thought to be a
messenger between God and people.
So, to bring messages
from the otherworld.
Um, I need the JB rings, please.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Birding has been my passion...
and my life
for a long, long time,
and, uh, a world without birds
is unthinkable.
If this type of wetland
disappears,
then it's gonna be one more nail
in the coffin for migratory birds.
Okay, there. He's back.
He's in. Catch him, Bob!
He's in.
It's our first geo male
of the season.
- Look at his band number.
- Want to check his band number?
Yeah. P-2-1-6.
P-2-1-6.
That's who we're after.
I held this bird in my hand
10 months ago.
Caught him in the same house,
we put the geo-locator on,
and meanwhile he's finished
raising his family,
he flew all the way to Brazil,
flew around the Amazon rain
forest for about six months.
Flew all the way back again,
and here we are dj vu.
I've caught him again, and this
time, we'll take the geo-locator off.
This slides off the leg.
There you go.
Every bird has
a different story to tell...
about how fast it's flying,
where it goes, how long it stops.
The timer value is 344 days,
17 hours, 40 minutes
and six seconds.
I think this bird here has set a
world record for purple martins.
I have not seen one before...
get from Pennsylvania
to the Gulf Coast in only two days.
So, our purple martins are in...
one of the biggest rain forests
on the planet.
Right where
the red-eyed vireos are too.
I can tell you exactly what day
he started migration in Brazil,
which we haven't been able
to ever do that before.
Wow. Incredible.
Uh, we know he was back
on the 29th.
So at most it took him
25 days to zip back.
Over the hundreds of years,
that's worked perfectly well
until now.
Populations here are crashing,
and I think the problem is
climate change for purple martins.
Because they're
so far away in spring.
We saw with this bird that
just days before he got back,
he was still in Mexico.
And he has no idea
that the spring is cold or warm.
So we think the purple martins
the northern populations
have a really hard time
adjusting their arrival date...
to match
what the temperature is doing.
The timing of migration
is critical.
If they come back too early and the
weather is cold, they could die.
If they come back too late,
after the food has peaked,
the young will starve
in the nest.
Climate change
is a new threat for songbirds.
Now, they've been suffering through
pesticides and habitat loss...
and big cities in their way
for many decades now.
But this new issue,
climate change,
could be the straw
that breaks the camel's back.
This is a new stress on them.
We don't really know exactly
how songbird populations...
are going to be able
to adapt to climate change.
If we assume that up until now things
have been going down in a steady line,
you say, "What's the future
going to hold?"
If we keep going down that line, this
is where we're going to be in 30 years.
But we don't know
that we're on a line.
It could be that things
spiral out of control,
and all of a sudden songbirds
that are still common now...
suddenly disappear.
Here's a big bag
of ruby-crowned kinglets.
Ruby-crowned kinglets.
1-2-2.
1-2-2.
The songbird populations
are in big trouble...
all around the planet.
The species that were present
in people's backyards,
in their forests,
are just not there anymore.
Now, what we're seeing
with these songbird declines...
is 40 or 50 years in a row...
of the populations
getting lower and lower.
So we have
only half the birds now...
that we did back in the 1960s.
The reason we study birds
is because...
they are so linked
to their environment.
They respond so quickly in terms of their
population, in terms of their reproduction,
that we know
that if we study birds,
we actually are mirroring
the bigger problem.
This is real. This is
This is happening.
We are changing the environment
faster than birds can cope with.
So we have to either
stop what we're doing...
and think about
how to do it better,
or, uh, pay the consequence
of hearing total silence.
We think that songbirds...
are really like the canary
in the coal mine.
They are telling us
something that's wrong.
There's something happening to
life on the planet that's not good,
and we need to find out
what that is...
and how we can change it.
We don't want to imagine
a world without songbirds.
I don't know
if we would survive it.