Popular Pesticides are Killing Birds, Too

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Soycow_Lover:

Popular Pesticides are Killing Birds, Too:

Neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine, were first introduced to agriculture in the 1980s. They're most commonly applied to seeds themselves and spread through the plants as they germinate and grow to protect against insects. But they've proven to be so harmful to bees and other insect populations that the EU banned their use in 2018. But in the U.S., thanks at least in part to a misinformation campaign on the part of the pesticide industry, there's been a shift to use more and more of the dangerous chemicals even as the overall use of insecticides has been declining.

[...] Grassland birds (which rely on grassland habitats for nesting) and insectivorous birds (which eat insects, worms, and other invertebrates) saw the steepest impacts. The authors found that an increase of 220 pounds (100 kilograms) in neonicotinoid usage per county was associated with a 2.2% decline in populations of grassland birds and 1.6% in insectivorous birds. Khanna said this was due to birds feeding on both seeds treated with the pesticide as well as eating insects themselves who may have ingested it.

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