White-faced Ibis and Wilson’s Phalarope. Photo courtesy of Miruh Hamend.

10 Easy Ways You Can Help Birds

This year, bird conservationists are celebrating an important milestone — the 100th anniversary of the signing of a treaty between the United States and Great Britain (on behalf of Canada) to protect birds that migrate across international boundaries. The treaty established the first uniform system of protection for nearly all bird species that live in, and often migrate between, the United States and Canada.

One hundred years later, we see the results of cooperative conservation. Where we have invested in healthy habitats, birds do better — and healthy birds mean healthy forests, wetlands, grasslands, shorelines and oceans, even healthy cities!

But it wasn’t always that way.

Wake-up Call

In the 1800s, millions of birds were killed for food, feathers, and science. Overuse of natural resources was the norm, and the loss of wildlife was at a level that is unimaginable to us today. Unregulated killing of migratory birds put many species at risk. Within just 30 years, our actions drove one of the most abundant birds — the passenger pigeon — to extinction.

At the turn of the 20th century, the passenger pigeon was estimated to be the most abundant land bird in North America, with a population of three to five billion; however, in September 1914, Martha, the last of her species, died in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Around this time, people started to realize something had to change. In 1903, the first comprehensive migratory bird law was introduced in congress (alas, it didn’t come to a vote), and the first National Wildlife Refuge was established on Pelican Island. Still, more was needed. If we were going to conserve the world’s migratory birds, we had to work together and start cooperating on a larger scale.

At last, on August 16, 1916, the first migratory bird treaty was signed. That treaty with Great Britain and three more that followed with Japan, Russia, and Mexico formalized our efforts to conserve migratory birds — efforts that continue today and involve many different organizations and partners.

However, cooperative conservation is about more than international borders and treaties. We can all get involved and play a role.

How You Can Help

“In terms of bang for the buck, there’s just nothing else like the Duck Stamp program,” says naturalist and author Scott Weidensaul. “Virtually every penny of it is on the ground doing good work for wildlife — either in terms of habitat acquisition or habitat restoration.”

1. Buy a Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp. For only $25 you can help secure vital bird habitats through the National Wildlife Refuge System. Almost all the revenue goes directly to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund.
2. Participate in a citizen science project such as the Christmas Bird Count, eBird, or Great Backyard Bird Count.
3. Buy bird friendly products such as shade-grown coffee.
4. Participate in trash day clean ups along rivers and wetlands.
5. Recycle plastic grocery/shopping bags or switch to canvas.
6. Keep cats indoors or get them a brightly colored Birdsbesafe collar so they are easily seen by songbirds.
7. Reduce bird collisions with windows. Leave blinds or curtains partially open during the day and move house plants away from windows. If you feed birds, keep the feeders less than 3 feet OR greater than 30 feet from any window or reflective surface to reduce collision risk.
8. Learn about birds through backyard birding. Need some help? Get a copy of Guide to Backyard Birds of the Front Range from Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.
9. Add bird-friendly landscaping or build a nest box.
10. Donate to your favorite bird conservation organization. You can contribute to bird habitat conservation every time you shop at AmazonSmile by selecting PLJV as the organization you’d like to support, or make a direct contribution to us through PayPal.

Learn More

Learn more about the Migratory Bird Treaty and why birds are important to our health and well-being: pljv.org/about-us/migratory-bird-treaty-centennial/