Steve Brusatte

It's pesticides.

It's rat poison in the cities.

And so many birds simply fly into windows.

I hate to say it for all of you pet enthusiasts out there, but the vast majority of birds that die unnatural deaths in the world today are felled by a serial killer that many of us let into our homes.

Cats, billions of birds a year are killed by cats.

These are all things that we as humans are enabling to happen to bird populations.

What we can see is that birds are survivors.

They are adaptable, they evolve quickly, they change quickly.

When they are confronted with a crisis, maybe not all of them make it through, but some of them do, and they can repopulate really quickly.

So, I am confident that birds will make it through the current crisis, and I'm maybe more confident that birds will make it through than a lot of mammals, including maybe even our own species.

You've had modern-style birds around for well over 66 million years.

They've already survived the single worst day in the history of the Earth.

And if I was a betting person, I would probably put my money on birds.

This is The Guardian.