Species Groups

While habitat associations are important when thinking about broad-scale bird conservation, it can also be useful to consider other ways of grouping similar birds together. This was perhaps most evident during the DDT era, when predatory birds high on the food chain, whether they ate fish or other birds, were all affected by accumulation of pesticides in their tissues. Here we present summaries of the conservation status of five groups of birds, each defined by some combination of ecology and relatedness that transcends habitat (although many often share a habitat).

For three of these groups: waterfowl, shorebirds, and seabirds, the majority of species don’t actually breed in New Hampshire, and the grouping helps highlight the conservation challenges faced by highly migratory birds across their full annual cycle (see also Birds in Migration and Winter). For birds of prey and aerial insectivores, the unifying feature is diet, and many of the threats and conservation actions related to these groups cross habitat lines. Increases in waterfowl and birds of prey are testament to how we can succeed at reversing declines as long as we know what the problems are. It’s never too late to work on such emerging conservation issues.