PEORIA – Illinois is home to hundreds of species of birds. Depending on the season, you can step outside and hear the familiar call of many songbirds right in your own neighborhood. But, not all of these birds should be in Central Illinois. Our warming climate is changing the face and temperature of the prairie land. It’s locking native birds into a fierce competition for resources with invasive species.
Invasive birds cost the United States’ farming industry billions of dollars every year. But to find out which species are the biggest culprit, you have to get up way before the sun comes up.
At four in the morning on the campus of Bradley University in Peoria, Professor Anant Deshwall and his students are up early in the name of science. Anant is a conservation biologist, community ecologist and ethno-ornithologist. His team loads up a van with ice, instruments, poles, and nets before driving to a local park.
It’s a race to set up three nets to catch the migrating songbirds before the sunrises. Songbirds cannot see the nets and will fly right into them.
Before the last net is set up, a robin is heard squawking after it is caught. It goes safely into a bag for studying.
“Oh, we got a Starling! We got a Starling, our first invasive species,” said Deshwall, minutes later.
Each bird is carefully untangled from the nets so they are not injured. The birds are placed upside down in soft cloth bags for at least a half hour so the scientists can collect a fecal sample to study their diet and overall health.
Later, the beak, wingspan, and legs of a European Starling are measured and recorded. Starlings are one of the most invasive species in our state. Anant says a fan of William Shakespeare released dozens of the birds in New York’s Central Park before the Civil War.
“[In the] 1860’s there was a fan of Shakespeare, who released starlings and about 60. We have at least a few million starlings in Central Illinois right now,” said Deshwall.
The starlings reproduce quickly and don’t have any natural predators in Illinois. And they aren’t the only encroaching birds he’s researching.
“It’s a house sparrow. You can tell it’s a male because it has black on its chest. It’s an invasive species,” said Deshwall.
Sparrows were introduced to eat caterpillars that were destroying elm trees in the northeast, and now there are hundreds of millions of them. They’re known for destroying crops and other songbirds.
“It will go over in agriculture fields and eat the seeds there. Corn it will eat it. Any seeds we are growing, it will eat those,” said Deshwall. “They will drive bluebirds, the native birds, out of their nests. Sometimes even kill them! Or kill their offspring, clean up the nest, and bring their own nest in there.”
Another factor making the non-native birds feel welcome in our state is climate change, fueled by our dependence on fossil fuels. According to the Illinois State Climatologist, Illinois is one to two degrees warmer than it was 100 years ago. Birds normally only found in southern states can now survive a Midwest winter.
“They are not only affecting our crops and all, they are also causing the number of our native species to decline on top of climate change. And we are partially helping them. How are we doing that? By accelerating climate change,” said Deshwall.
Deshwall said doing things like hanging bird boxes, built for native birds like bluebirds will help native bird numbers rise. Gardening is another way.
“Plant more natives in your gardens. Plant more native plants. Plant more vining flowers that will attract more native insects and birds,” said Deshwall.
Before their release, a leg band with a unique number is put on each bird’s leg so they won’t be counted more than once if they catch it in the future. Then these winged wonders were free and headed off to their next destination.
Funding for Illinois Public Media’s State of Change stories is provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust.