NEWPORT — The Eastern Towhee is a sparrow that doesn’t look like a typical sparrow. With its ink-black hood and sepia sides, the male especially stands out in the landscape.
But it’s getting harder to spot the towhee or hear its distinctive “chewink” calls in Rhode Island and elsewhere across its range in the eastern half of the country. The bird’s numbers have plummeted by half in the last 50 years or so.
It’s an all-too-familiar story playing out with countless species in the avian world. Over the same time period, North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds – 30% of the total population.
It was against this backdrop that 200 people came out to Newport on Sunday for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s second annual Birds Across New England symposium.
“There’s a very real need to bring these species back,” said Charles Clarkson, director of avian research for Audubon of Rhode Island.
Educating the public about bird losses in bid to drive conservation
Doing that will mean getting the word out about the plight of birds and motivating the public to do something about it, he said.