Wild birds need your help. In the last 50 years, the total population of North American birds has declined by almost 30%. Conserving birds and preventing extinctions will require everyone’s participation. In this article, you will read about 10 simple ways you can help conserve birds, divided into four sections of related tips.
Help prevent wild birds from being killed by domestic cats.
Domestic cats are responsible for killing somewhere between 1.3-4.0 BILLION birds per year in the United States alone. This likely makes cats the greatest human-related cause of bird deaths in the United States. Here are a few steps you can take to help prevent bird mortalities caused by domestic cats:
1. Keep your cats indoors. This is one of the most important things you can do for birds. If you absolutely cannot keep your cats indoors, consider the following options:
- Control your cat’s outdoor movements. Install an in-ground pet-safe electric fence or create a designated enclosed area in your yard for your cat to enjoy that prevents them from killing native wildlife.
- Fit your cat with a BirdsBeSafe collar. Regular bell collars have been shown to reduce the number of prey items caught by cats by 50%, which is good, but research suggests that BirdsBeSafe collars can reduce the number of prey items caught by 87%.
- Do not let your cat outside unsupervised in the spring when birds are fledging, even if they are wearing a BirdsBeSafe collar. Young birds that have just left the nest cannot fly well and are more vulnerable to predators.
2. Report feral cats to local animal control or a rescue/shelter. Feral cats are an enormous threat to wildlife, even if they are spayed and neutered. Resist feeding feral cats and perpetuating feral colonies. Instead, focus your efforts on getting stray cats off the streets and into loving homes – and away from vulnerable wildlife populations.
3. Adopt cats from rescues or shelters and get them spayed and neutered. Adopt, don’t shop! Get your pets fixed so they cannot add to the population of feral cats or cats needing a home.
Create and sustain bird-friendly habitat.
Human development and climate change are rapidly reducing suitable habitat for many bird species. Here are a few ways you can help conserve habitat for birds:
4. Landscape your property with native plants that make good bird habitat. Visit Audubon’s native plants database to find out what native plants you should grow in your yard to create suitable habitat for birds. Transform your grass lawn into a bird and pollinator paradise! If your Homeowner’s Association requires that you maintain a perfectly manicured grass lawn, petition the HOA to change the rules to allow at least part of that lawn to be replaced with a garden of native plants and shrubs. After all, a native garden is much more beautiful than a grass lawn!
5. Plant native trees and shrubs in your yard to create shelter and hiding places from predators. Our beloved yard birds are at greater risk of falling prey to outdoor cats, hawks, and other predators. When birds visit feeders and birdbaths in yards with low tree and shrub cover, they are more visible to potential predators and have no places to take shelter if a predator is nearby.
6. Buy bird-friendly coffee and support sustainable agriculture. Many migratory birds that we love to see in our yards and natural areas in the United States during the spring and summer spend their winters in Central and South America on shade-grown coffee farms. These birds forage for insects among the canopy trees above the coffee plants. When you buy shade-grown coffee instead of sun-grown coffee, you are supporting sustainable agrobusiness that preserves the canopy above the coffee plants for birds.
When you can, buy produce from local, organic, and sustainable farms. Intensive agriculture destroys ecosystems by means of deforestation, monoculture, and heavy application of fertilizers and pesticides.
Help prevent deaths of migrating birds caused by manmade infrastructure.
Migration is the most exhausting time of year for a bird. When migrating birds pass through big cities, they are faced with many additional challenges that they are not equipped to handle. Here are two ways you can help migrating birds survive their trip through the city:
7. Turn off all outdoor lights and bright indoor lights at night. Artificial light confuses birds and changes their behavior, causing them to fly erratically and exhaust themselves or collide with buildings or structures. Join Audubon’s Lights Out initiative and turn off your porch lights at night or install motion-activated outdoor lights. Turn off bright interior lights at night, especially in tall buildings. Send a letter to your building manager or an elected official advocating for building lights in your city to be turned off at night or put on an automatic timer at night.
Artificial light has also been linked to declines in moth populations, which are a critical part of birds’ diets. By reducing artificial light at night, you can protect insect populations, and in turn, help birds.
8. Make windows visible to birds to prevent window collision deaths. Window strikes cause up to 1 BILLION bird deaths in the United States each year. During the day, birds are confused by the reflection of the trees and sky in windows and fly at full speed into the glass traps, thinking they are open space. At night, birds are confused by artificial light coming from windows and fly towards them. This is especially problematic during migration when millions of birds fly at night through cities with tall buildings with lots of windows. Install window decals or mark windows with tape or tempera paint to show birds that the window is a solid surface.
These measures can greatly reduce the likelihood of window collisions by birds. Implement these ideas at home and at work! Many office buildings are death traps for birds because they are tall, have lots of windows, and often keep artificial lights on at night.
Be kind to bugs that are an important food source for native birds.
Insects are disappearing at an alarming rate. In the past 30 years, we have lost 27% of our terrestrial insect population worldwide. Many birds rely on insects as their main food source during various times of the year, and without these insects, they will also disappear:
9. Avoid using pesticides. Chemical pollutants like insecticides are a main driver of insect population declines and extinctions. Instead of using pesticides to control bugs, rely on birds to regulate the insect populations on your property.
And finally…
10. BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARD. Understand that the actions you take directly impact the environment you live in, and the birds that you share it with. Reduce your carbon footprint, reduce, reuse, and recycle, keep chemicals and waste out of stormwater drains and streams, and leave no trace when you visit natural areas.
Birds are suffering from the environmental and ecological conditions that humans have created. Luckily, there are lots of people out there like you and me who care about our wildlife. If we all do our part to mitigate these challenges that birds face, we can improve the outlook for birds.
