Songbirds Are More Than Just Good Singers

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Welcome to this week's edition of Something Wild.

I'm Rosemary Conroy for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

This can be one of the buggiest times of year in New Hampshire - and also one of the birdiest. Coinicidence? Of course not. Each summer thousands of songbirds converge on the forests of the Northeast precisely because we have lots of bugs.

And birds aren't the only ones to benefit. Trees and other plants gain a lot from having all those avian predators prowling about their branches, picking off all those very hungry caterpillars. If birds didn't eat the insects, the insects would end up eating the trees.

Scientific studies have shown that preventing birds from accessing trees nearly doubles the amount of insect damage those trees experience. This means birds are not only pretty and sound nice, they are helping to maintain our entire forest economy as well. In the tropics of Panama, scientists found even more dramatic results. When they excluded birds from reaching certain trees during the rainy season, average vegetation damage there increased by 86 percent.

Now we all know that tropical forests are important to cooling our planet and cleaning our air, while also housing a vast amount of our global biological wealth. If songbird numbers continue to decline as they have been, it would be even worse for these already threatened forests - and for us.

To combat this decline, one scientist is experimenting with using cacao plantations as replacement habitats for migratory songbirds in places where their natural habitat is being destroyed. By attracting more birds, the plantations will use fewer insecticides. This helps them lower costs and maintain productivity through healthier plants.

As you may know, cacao is the main ingredient in chocolate, so more songbirds not only means healthier forests and less global warming, it could also mean more - and cheaper - chocolate!

For Something Wild, I'm Rosemary Conroy.