Nashville Photography Exhibit Makes The Case For Bird Conservation

A Nashville photographer wants to raise awareness of declining bird populations with his latest photography exhibit, which opens Friday at Shelby Bottoms Nature Center.

Graham Gerdeman’s exhibit, called “Our Vanishing Birds,” is a collection of about a dozen photographs of North American species, both regional and migratory, that can be found in Nashville.

Each photograph comes with a description of the bird, like the popular Carolina chickadee, and its current population loss.

“Most of us might go out to Radnor Lake or Shelby Bottoms and see all these birds and think, ‘This is amazing.’ But the more you do it, the more you kind of realize, ‘Hey, this is less than last year. This is less than five years ago,'” Gerdeman said.

Experts have long pointed to a global biodiversity crisis that’s affecting all animal classes. A recent study in Science found that the net population of North American birds has decreased by nearly 30% since 1970.

“Our loss of native species are real warning bells to ecosystem collapse,” Gerdeman said. “This is all related to climate change and habitat destruction.”

But Gerdeman hopes that another takeaway from the exhibit is that there are simple steps that people can take to reduce bird deaths.

Common conservation measures include keeping cats indoors and reducing pesticide use. The Shelby Bottoms Nature Center recently purchased bird-protective film for its windows to reduce collisions.