2018-09-05 · Domestic poultry vs wild birds
Chickens now outweigh wild birds
Add up the mass of every bird. Farmed poultry — almost all chickens — are about three times the wild flock. The sky is not the census.
1 cell = 7,000 tonnes of carbon in birds (0.1% of bird biomass) · 1,000 cells
Context
Add up the mass of every bird. Farmed poultry — almost all chickens — are about three times the wild flock. The sky is not the census.
Bar-On, Phillips, and Milo, The biomass distribution on Earth, PNAS 2018: domesticated poultry ≈0.005 Gt C; wild birds ≈0.002 Gt C.
About 71% / 29% of that combined mass.
This grid fixes bird biomass at 1,000 equal cells (0.1% of bird biomass). Figures follow Bar-On, Phillips, and Milo, PNAS 2018 as summarized in the source line — rounded so cell counts sum to the chart.