Well for one thing most birds do disappear from somewhere for a reason. I
don't know why Common Nighthawks have disappeared from the Puget Sound area
but it likely has something to do with habitat and food sources. In addition,
birds learn to exist in the area they were raised in. They know how to find
food, shelter, and nesting sites in the range that they naturally establish.
If we were to kidnap a bunch of birds and relocate them to another area they
wouldn't know how to find these things on their own. Some may adapt and
figure it out, and some would probably die. That seems cruel to me. You have
to think of it this way-you wouldn't randomly pick up a person and relocate
them to a place that they don't know with no sense of where they were or how to
make their way in the world there. So why would you do that to an animal?
If there are actually remaining members of the species out there, there are
complicated genetic reasons not to do this as well, but honestly I don't know
enough about that to comment.
Rachel Silverstein
Seattle WA
P.S. I feel the exact way about relocating mammals. Displacing "problem"
animals like bears doesn't help anyone.