Controversial Pesticides Killing Wild Birds As Well As Bees

Declining numbers of starlings and tree sparrows in the Netherlands linked to chemical used to protect crops from insects

Controversial pesticides blamed for the loss of bee colonies may also be having much wider environmental effects and damaging wild bird populations, research has shown.
Scientists in the Netherlands linked declines in farmland bird species, such as starlings and tree sparrows, with a neonicotinoid chemical used to protect crops from insect pests.
Nine of the bird species studied fed exclusively on insects, and all relied on insects to feed their young.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest that the harmful environmental effects of neonicotinoids go far beyond their alleged impact on bees.  They echo the claims made in Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring, published in 1962, which led to a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT in the US.

Silent Spring, which brought fears about the environmental hazards of indiscriminate pesticide use to the attention of the American public, focused mainly on the fate of birds.
The Dutch scientists showed that local bird populations were significantly lower in areas where there was more water contamination by the pesticide imidacloprid.  All but one of the species studied, which also included the mistle thrush, yellow wagtail and Eurasian skylark, were affected between 2003 and 2010...