Seven things we all can do to help birds

“This is a bird emergency with a clear message: the natural world humans depend on is being paved, logged, eroded and polluted. You don’t need to look hard for the metaphor: birds are the canaries in the coal mine that is the Earth’s future,” Yarnold said.

Ogston said a holistic perspective needs to be brought to helping the natural world thrive, from insect populations to birds to animals that eat birds. “Apply that care to the whole system. That in the end is what’s going to help the birds the most.”

Rob Hope, the raptor care manager at OWL Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society in Delta, said he was not overly surprised at the Science study since most of the birds his organization helps are ailing because of human causes. For example, he said sick eagles and vultures often need help because they have eaten bits of lead from decomposing animals that have been shot. Ailing owls, Hope added, have often eaten rat poison which contains extremely lethal components.

Increasing land development is also a problem, he said, as it reduces the size and number of open fields that many birds require. And in the forests, he noted, clearcutting logging also reduces bird habitat.

“These are all factors in the decline,” Hope said. “Nature is sort of saying something to us: ‘Something isn’t right here’.” Just days before the startling Science study, the magazine released another report showing pesticides linked to global bee declines might also be negatively affecting migratory birds. The study abstract says “Neonicotinoids are neurotoxic insecticides widely used as seed treatments, but little is known of their effects on migrating birds that forage in agricultural areas.”

The study noted that ingestion of imidacloprid by migrating white-crowned sparrows “caused a rapid reduction in food consumption, mass, and fat and significantly affected their probability of departure.”

Migration delays, the report added, “can carry over to affect survival and reproduction; thus, these results confirm a link between sublethal pesticide exposure and adverse outcomes for migratory bird populations.”

Chris Rose is a retired journalist living in North Vancouver. FEATURE

1. Make windows safer by installing screens or break up reflection by using film coatings or paint.

2. Keep cats indoors. Cats are estimated to kill more than 2.6 billion birds annually in the U.S. and Canada.

3. Reduce lawns and plant native species instead. There is huge potential to support wildlife by replacing lawns with native plantings.

4. Don’t use pesticides. North America’s most widely used insecticides, called neonicotinoids or “neonics,” are lethal to birds and to the insects that birds consume.

5. Drink shade-grown coffee. Three-quarters of the world’s coffee farms grow their plants in the sun, destroying forests that birds and other wildlife need for food and shelter. Shadegrown coffee preserves a forest canopy that helps migratory birds survive the winter.

6. Reduce your use of plastics. Plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade, and 91 percent of plastics created are not recycled. Studies show that at least 80 seabird species ingest plastic, mistaking it for food.

7. Watch birds and share what you see. You can enjoy birds while helping science and conservation by joining a bird club or taking part in a bird survey.