The Putnam Museum and Science Center is hosting an exhibit called 'Birds and You.' It examines the role we all can play in protecting and preserving the birds we see every day in our backyards and fields right here in the Quad Cities and all over the US.

Visitors will see a variety of taxidermy mounts, eggs, and nests from Putnam’s collection while learning about the issues facing birds today and the basic things we can do to help.

The number of birds in the U.S. and Canada has fallen by a staggering 29% since 1970. Each of us can play a role in bird restoration efforts.

"Bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970."

This kind of decline is scary to see, Ken Rosenberg, the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy, stated that the magnitude of the decline could significantly affect the ecosystems.

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“We can be pretty sure that other parts of the ecosystem are also in decline and degradation.”

This is where the Putnam Museum and Science Center exhibit comes into play here in the Quad Cities. This event is not only a learning experience on how to help the bird population, but also includes a variety of birdhouses loaned by community members and will feature activities including identifying birds by their silhouettes, doing a practice bird count in Black Earth Big River, and creating your own origami passenger pigeon.

More information can be found here. 

 

 

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