Picture a candy cane, a stack of sticky notes, or five paperclips strung together — that’s the average size of a Florida grasshopper sparrow.
Native to Florida — and found nowhere else on the planet — the small sparrow is named for its buzz-like birdsong, which resembles the distinct “tick tick pzzzzzzzz” of a flying grasshopper (the same bug that coincidentally doubles as its favorite food).
In the 2010s, this teeny bird species teetered towards the brink of extinction due to habitat loss and degradation.
In 2019, it was estimated that as few as 100 birds were left in the wild.
Fortunately, after experts sounded the alarm about the Florida grasshopper sparrow’s rapidly shrinking population in 2014, conservationists began a captive breeding program through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
This July, after a decade of conservation efforts, they released their 1,000th bird into the wild.
“The recovery and release program diverted the extinction of the Florida grasshopper sparrow,” Adrienne Fitzwilliam, FWC’s lead sparrow research scientist, told The Guardian.
The rewilding efforts have been carried out across three grassy prairies throughout central Florida: Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, and the Avon Park Air Force Range.
Over the years, the released birds have flourished. With binoculars in hands, experts return time and again to monitor the nesting couples, counting 40 in places where there were once just 11.
“These little birds represent a big beacon of hope that our commitment, partnership and holistic approach can save vulnerable wildlife from the brink of extinction,” said Andrew Walker, president of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, in an interview with the Guardian.
Captive breeding programs, especially with birds, can be a tricky endeavor. Success is not simply measured by the number of birds that a program raises, but the broader efforts undertaken to ensure that released birds can thrive once they’re released.
The captive breeding program in Florida wouldn’t be possible without the preservation efforts that have been launched in the state, from the prairielands to the Everglades.
Florida also has one of the highest rates of prescribed burns in the country — annually burning a controlled 2.1 million acres of forests — to reduce the risk of wildfires, improve forest health, and promote increased seed and flower production.
Overall, Fitzwilliam feels like he can finally breathe a sigh of relief, after the rewilding efforts have proven fruitful.
“The fear was we might just be expediting their demise by bringing in proven breeders, so to see these birds making it in the wild, breeding with wild birds and other release birds, and their offspring going on to breed, has just been incredibly rewarding,” said Fitzwilliam.
“At the time there was a lot of anxiety about if we’re doing the right thing,” Fitzwilliam added. Looking back now, he knows they made “the right choice.”
“It is a really good feeling.”
Header image via via Ryan Mandelbaum (CC BY 4.0)
