A major report from a consortium of organizations does not offer much in the way of good news regarding the lives of birds in the U.S. Their habitats have been foreclosed, they’ve been sent out into the streets where the weather is changing, they’re not properly attired, the food is indigestible and they search in vain for familiar places to stop and take up residence.

Hawaii, the fantasy vacation isle, is the worst of all. Home to one third of all U.S. bird species, almost all are in trouble. Dozens have been declared extinct in the last decades with another 10 species which have not been seen in 40 years but have not yet been listed as extinct.

The good news is that wetland birds have shown increasing numbers in response to new understanding and application to habitat of that knowledge. The challenge is to increase the knowledge and apply it to desert, shoreline, forest and mountains where degradation by development, population and climate change is real and severe.

There’s plenty to be done, both at an individual level and by organizations and governmental bodies.

The report is a good place to start.