the birds are back in town

A study shows it: the drop in pesticides has already led to the return of birds to Île-de-France. But the picture is not all rosy.

The Chinese calendar 2020 celebrated the year of the Rat. But the Covid-19 epidemic has passed through there and has turned it, for us, city dwellers, into the “year of the bird”. Relegating cars to the garage, the health crisis had the indirect consequence of reducing noise pollution in cities. In Paris and in the suburbs, the inhabitants were surprised to hear the song of great tits, blackbirds, troglodytes and other passerines. We even remember a video of ducks who offered themselves the luxury of a solo walk in front of the Comédie-Française… All this now seems far away: with deconfinement, cars and inhabitants have reinvested the city, and the The roar of engines covered the tune of the blackcaped warblers. The rock pigeon, which is the most common species in the capital, once again occupies the front of the Seine: Espaces and Aerho, two associations respectively defending urban ecology and “Meetings between men and birds ”, estimate that Paris accommodates around twenty-three thousand.

If the birdsong is less audible this year, the inhabitants of Greater Paris seem more sensitive than ever to their presence. “During confinement, remembers Pascaline, who lives in the Place des Fêtes district, I loved to observe the behavior of wood pigeons in the chestnut trees in front of my house. Go see the birds at Buttes-Chaumont fills me with joy today. I go there to watch for the heron and plan to register for the ornithological walks that are regularly organized there. “ A pleasure shared by Margot, who lives with her family a few streets from the Jourdain church (19th arrondissement), in a place where seagulls provide the musical atmosphere: “I’m lucky to have a small garden, where I drink my coffee while listening to them: for a bit, it feels like Marseille! We hung small balls of seeds on the trees which regularly attract great tits, magpies, oak jays, robins, blackbirds… ”

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