Paramount Roles of Wild Birds as Bioindicators of Contamination

This review aims to give all-inclusive prcis of key roles of wild birds as bioindicators of contamination using theoretical and empirical evidence provided in different literature and its influence on conservation. Over the years wild birds have been used as bioindicators of contamination globally. Are wild birds suitable for measuring heavy metal pollution? Bioindicators are species used to appraise the health conditions of the environment and they are capable of determining the environmental integrity if their functions and populations are put into consideration. Birds are good indicators because they are very easy to detect and their presence is easy to observe in any environment or if the habitat does not fulfill the ecological requirements, as they are equipped with the ability of flight so that they will leave the environment. Apart from that, in classification individual species are easy to identify with their wide distribution. Heavy metals are essential elements for organisms but may be toxic with high level, affecting productive function and behavioural features and equally heavy metals can easily be accumulated and biomagnified through food or food web. Therefore, using birds as bioindicators is a function of properties of interest and resources available for ecological evaluation which promotes conservation of bird species for impending generation.