7 Things You Can Do to Benefit and Protect Birds

Hundreds of millions of birds are killed each year due to man-made structures and human activities. Our actions can benefit and protect birds and bird habitat.

Prevent Home Window Collisions
Prevent birds from colliding with your windows by making them visible with decals or window coverings and keeping light inside your house at night.

Buy a Bird Bath
A bird bath is an inexpensive, fun, and easy way to provide birds with water to drink and bathe in. Keep it clean and filled with water.

Author's Bird BathA couple years ago, after a lengthy search, I found a suitable bird bath for our yard. It looks beat up and old. Many different birds visit to drink and bathe in it, from swifts to crows. Once, I saw a green and yellow parakeet (probably an escapee from a nearby home) perched on one side of the bird bath and several larger birds on the other. I wondered if the parakeet felt happy to be free or scared, proud to be different or like the odd one out.

Support Bird Conservation
Support birds by joining a bird conservation organization or making a donation to one. Use your right to freedom of speech to advocate for bird conservation and habitat protection at the local, state, national or international level.

Prevent Pet Predation
For those living with domestic cats, be mindful of your pet’s whereabouts and activities.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Cardinal Flower – Photo: Bill Buchanan, USFWSI like cats and we lived with cats for many years. Our cats lived outside and came in the house to be fed and when they felt like companionship. They left dead field mice and an occasional bird on the back porch. Cats are natural predators so they were just being cats. I admit at the time I did not think about how our cats contributed to the millions of birds killed by cats each year.

Provide and Protect Bird Habitat
Migratory birds need safe places to rest and eat, and all birds need safe places to live. Native plants supply food, cover, and nesting sites for birds. Bird feeders and bird houses can also provide food and shelter.

Dead Tree and Fallen Tree Provide Bird and Insect Habit in Author's YardWe live in a Monterey Pine forest and dead trees can pose a hazard to homes and utility lines (power outages are not infrequent during storms). In our yard, two dead trees near the power lines were cut off below the lines and now provide habit for birds and other wildlife. The woodpeckers seem to prefer them to pecking on our house. Small trees that have fallen down and not hit anything are left to naturally decay and provide food (insects) for birds and other animals.

Buy Bird Friendly Products
Farming methods that protect land from erosion and degradation are good for farmers, birds, and other wildlife. Buy bird friendly products like shade-grown coffee and cacao (chocolate).

Skip Pesticides, Herbicides, and Fertilizers
Author's Aphid-Free Lavender BushPesticides, herbicides, and some fertilizers are not healthful for birds or humans for that matter. Eliminate these often toxic products and save money too. Insects provide necessary food for birds. Pulling weeds by hand is good exercise. Compost helps keep soils healthy.

We now offer a toxin free yard. I do not like creepy crawlies and was amazed at how well birds keep insect pests under control. For instance, a flock of tiny birds make short work of a new aphid colony on a lavender bush.

“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.”
—John James Audubon