I call it BS. With that being said, there seems to be no decline in the damn house sparrows and starlings whose numbers seem to be growing exponentially...
Hawks and eagles and falcons are definitely more abundant. When I was a kid there were no falcons around except for a kestrel once in a while. Seeing a hawk was was rare and exciting... on a hundred mile trip we’d see one or two, almost always a pair redtails. Now the darn things are everywhere, I see them every single day, occupying every third light post, flitting through the pine woods, soaring over meadows, and in the garden they even show up, especially the smaller kind that prefer to eat song birds. Has it ever occurred to the bird counters that the resurgence of predatory birds would have a negative impact on songbirds?