Kailen Mooney of UC Irvine has published a study that estimates that birds, lizards, and bats combined eat enough insects that would otherwise damage plants that the plants grow, on average, fourteen percent more, thereby sucking up more carbon dioxide.  Now that right there is a great reason to encourage conservation!  Though, to be honest, the idiotic comments on the linked article do not fill me with hope…

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.