Chapter 3 North Carolina Species
Increased human population density within North Carolina’s coastal region increases challenges associated with garbage and pet food that attract mammalian and avian predators in larger numbers. Raccoons, foxes, free-ranging cats, Coyotes, crows, and gulls all prey on bird adults, eggs, chicks, and fledglings. Such predation pressures have population-level impacts on bird species, and especially significant effects on small, declining populations. Energy development from wind farms, solar panels, or offshore oil rigs may affect migratory bird populations directly through collisions with infrastructure or being coated with oil from spills. Indirect effects may include avoidance of large areas used by energy development, thus loss of habitat. Buildings and glass, especially in urban areas where multi-story buildings have numerous windows, are collision risks because the glass reflects open sky, plants, or other components of natural habitat. Several toolkits to reduce bird collisions are available online https://www.fws.gov/story/threats-birds-collisions-buildings-glass. Climate change and SLR will alter coastal environments. Coastal marshes in North Carolina are not gaining in elevation at a pace sufficient to keep up with sea level rise (Bost et al. 2024, SECOORA 2024) . Loss of freshwater marsh habitat to saltwater intrusion will adversely affect several rail species, many of which we know little about already. Loss of marsh islands in estuaries will affect Forster’s Tern, Willet, Clapper Rail, American Oystercatcher, and other species dependent on these sites for nesting, feeding, and roosting. Strong coastal storms create overwash pans and inlets that benefit many shorebirds, terns, and skimmers. Barrier islands may decrease in area, thus, dredged- material islands may play an increased role in providing nesting, roosting, and feeding habitats. Habitat management on private lands continues to be important to maintaining viability of bird populations in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. In particular, providing and administering programs to discourage clean agricultural practices, and promoting field borders of native herbaceous and shrub species should continue to be supported through the NCWRC Wildlife Conservation Lands Program and similar programs. In other landscapes, increasing the use of fire as a management tool, mitigating loss of canopy cover in key dispersal corridors (for species like the Red-cockaded Woodpecker), and managing invasive species causing reduction of insect prey populations should be supported. The nation's most used insecticides, known as neonicotinoids or "neonics," pose a lethal threat to birds and the insects they eat. Since their introduction in the United States in 1994, these pesticides have been incorporated into hundreds of products, such as insect sprays, seed treatments, soil drenches, tree injections, and veterinary ointments for controlling fleas in pets. Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides, absorbed by plants and transported to all tissues, including leaves, flowers, roots, stems, pollen, and nectar, unlike other pesticides that stay on the surface. This means neonicotinoids can impact entire food chains. They persist in the environment, infiltrate groundwater, and have cumulative, largely irreversible effects on invertebrates. At very low doses, neonicotinoids kill beneficial terrestrial invertebrates like earthworms. The updated Worldwide Integrated Assessment documents their effects on fish,
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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