Pesticides and bird populations.

Abstract

The major impacts of current biocide uses on birds are in the Third World countries, where restrictions are uneven and where effects are largely undocumented. Since the application of a biocide to the environment inevitably results in the death or organisms, there is also an inevitable disruption of the local food web. Birds are therefore potentially affected in a variety of ways. Mortality may follow the ingestion of a poison; accumulation of persistent chemicals in tissues may result in an impairment of reproduction; and a reduction or modification of the food supply is frequently an immediate effect of biocide application. The increasing use of herbicides in agriculture, silviculture and in land management in general is causing many modifications of the available habitat. -from Author