Neonicotinoid is the most widely used pesticide in the world. It has been implicated to have caused the dropping of bee populations, and now new research suggests another harmful effect of the pesticide, this time on birds.
… [The pesticide] could also have a hand in the decline of songbird populations across North America. From 1966 to 2013, the populations of nearly three-quarters of farmland bird species across the continent have precipitously dropped.
When the researchers fed some of the birds seeds coated with neonicotinoids, this is what happened.
Within hours, the dosed birds began to lose weight and ate less food, researchers report in the Sept. 13 Science. Birds given the higher amount of imidacloprid (3.9 milligrams per kilogram of body mass) lost 6 percent of their body mass within six hours. That’s about 1.6 grams for an average bird weighing 27 grams. Tracking the birds (Zonotrichia leucophrys) revealed that the pesticide-treated sparrows also lagged behind the others when continuing their migration to their summer mating grounds.
Find out more about the study over at ScienceNews.
(Image Credit: M. Eng/ ScienceNews)