Fwd: what species of birds reproduce in Massachusetts?

[Thought you might be interested in excerpts from this article. --pws]

Entering its second season, the study has found that 47 of about 170 species known to be breeding in the state have declined by at least 10 percent over the past three decades.

The American kestrel is among the birds whose numbers are dropping sharply and unexpectedly. No one is sure why the small falcon is in such big trouble. Suburban sprawl may be part of the reason, but the state is also losing farmland to forest. Since kestrels thrive in open fields and pastures, the rise of dense woods means no more mice, grasshoppers, and other meadow prey.

"Birds are tricky, and the reasons for population losses or gains aren't necessarily the obvious ones," said Joan Walsh, an ornithologist and director of the project. "It isn't always because of 'bad' bulldozers ripping away nature. Farms go down, fallow fields grow up, and birds that require open land disappear. The flip side? Birds that like woodier habitats may move in."

The Cooper's hawk, for example, is proliferating in older suburbs like Concord and Lincoln that are now thickly timbered.

"Each bird has its own story," Walsh said.

[This comment from the same article was interesting too. --pws]

American oystercatchers and blue-gray gnatcatchers are among other southerly birds setting up shop in Massachusetts. If the inflow continues, joked Audubon field ornithologist Simon Perkins, the black-capped chickadee might one day be replaced as Massachusetts state bird by the Carolina chickadee. "Not that anyone would notice," he said of the innocuous little fluffer.

Black Capped Chickadee 600 x 461 - 50k - jpg www.ohio-nature.com	Black-Capped Chickadee 470 x 300 - 30k - jpg www.birdsandblooms.com	Black-capped Chickadee 400 x 400 - 27k - aspx identify.whatbird.com	... of the Black-Capped Chickadee 417 x 348 - 50k - jpg www.learnbirdsongs.com	Black-capped Chickadee 985 x 802 - 169k - jpg www.johnsonmill.com	Black-capped Chickadees 400 x 303 - 37k - jpg web2.uwindsor.ca	black-capped chickadee photo 530 x 380 - 164k - jpg animal.discovery.com

CAROLINA CHICKADEE 400 x 301 - 56k - jpg www.outdooralabama.com	Carolina Chickadee 450 x 379 - 24k - jpg www.fws.gov	Carolina Chickadee, Gary Carter's ... 408 x 650 - 16k www.birdsasart.com	Carolina Chickadee. 546 x 411 - 74k - jpg main.nc.us	Carolina Chickadee Breeding Male ... 400 x 400 - 21k - aspx identify.whatbird.com	A Carolina Chickadee brings a ... 428 x 600 - 51k - jpg www.naturalsciences.org	Carolina Chickadee (maybe!) 704 x 586 - 59k - jpg www.howardsview.com