“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no 
birds sang there except those that sang best.” 
Henry Van Dyke

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before."  ~ Robert Lynd

From the Audubon Society:
Birds are important indicators of the overall health of our environment. Like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, they send an urgent warning about threats to our water, air, natural resources, climate and more.

Audubon’s State of the Birds reports provide a picture of how the continental U.S.’ birds – both common and rare – are faring. They bring together population data from our Christmas Bird Count – the longest running wildlife census in the world, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Breeding Bird Survey and other wildlife and habitat research to highlight population declines and explore the threats behind them. A new series of State of the Birds analyses is being launched with June 2007’s Common Birds in Decline. Other’s will add to the picture periodically. Both new and archived reports are provided below to offer an ongoing picture of the State of the Birds. READ MORE

Since 1500, over 190 species of birds have become extinct, and this rate of extinction seems to be increasing. The situation is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all known recently extinct bird taxaoriginally lived. Other areas, such as Guam, have also been hit hard; Guam has lost over 60% of its native bird taxa in the last 30 years, many of them due to the introduced Brown Tree Snake.

There are today about 10,000 species of birds, with roughly 1,200 considered to be under threat of extinction.
SOURCE: wikipedia

I call this photo: Landed On Me Just Because. I have several wild "pet" birds in the mountains around my cabin that come when I whistle and will even go for walks with me. 

I watched the female and male feed the baby birds over the course of a couple of weeks. They dined mostly on beakfuls of red ants. This tree was at the edge of my mountain property. It was such a treat to have my very own nature show so close by.