The Science of Birds - 15 Simple (and Several Complicated) Ways You Can Help Birds

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

This episode—which is Number 66—is all about the ways you can help birds. How you can make a difference in their conservation.It’s one thing to enjoy learning about birds in an objective, scientific way. They’re fascinating organisms.But does our interest in the biology of birds also come bundled with a care and concern for them? With warm and fuzzy feelings? I’d say heck yes, it does! For most of us, anyway, including yours truly.We want birds out there in the wide world to survive and thrive. For their own intrinsic worth as living beings. But also because of our selfish desire to have them around for us—so we can enjoy them, and take Instagram-worthy photos of them, and write their names down on our lifelists. Links of InterestThe Blue Feet FoundationBring Birds Back podcast~~ Leave me a review using Podchaser ~~Link to this episode on the Science of Birds website Support the show

Hello and welcome. This is the Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners. This episode, which is number 66, is all about the ways you can help birds, how you can make a difference in their conservation. It's one thing to enjoy learning about birds in an objective scientific way. They're fascinating organisms. Even an emotionless Vulcan like Mr. Spock would probably agree with that.

Fascinating. But does our interest in the biology of birds also come bundled with a care and concern for them, with warm and fuzzy feelings? I'd say, heck yes, it does, for most of us anyway, including yours truly. We want birds out there in the wide world to survive and thrive for their own intrinsic worth as living beings, but also because of our selfish desire to have them around for us so we can enjoy them and take Instagram-worthy photos of them and write their names down on our life lists. Today, let's take a look at the many ways you and I can make the world a better place for birds.

If you're an emotionless Vulcan or Android, maybe this will all sound like a bunch of fluff. Yes, this sounds like a bunch of fluff to me. Okay, Mr. Android, but if we want birds around in the future, even if only so we can study them for scientific purposes, we better do what we can to protect them. All right, let's get into it. shall we? The first overarching category I have for you is share the love. One of the simplest and yet most powerful things we can do is spread our joy and enthusiasm for birds and bird watching.

Sing the praises of birds to everyone you meet. grab random strangers on the street, shake them vigorously while yelling at them. Birds are amazing! Have you even looked at a bird? They're all around you. Wake up, man! Seriously, though, consider telling your friends and family about how much you enjoy wild birds. Your passion can be infectious. The more people out there who open their eyes and ears to the wonders of birds, the more people there are who will care about bird conservation. You've heard it before. I know, but children are the future. Share your love of birds with a kid and you're helping to create a future world where people value birds and nature. So much of my

own fascination with animals and nature came to me through my parents, my dad especially. He died a long time ago, but I'm here talking to you about birds today in large part because my dad shared his passion with me when I was a kid. Invite kids or whoever to go out birding with you. I've seen how powerful this can be over and over. A person who never thought much about birds before will go out on maybe their first ever birdwalk. You show them a lovely little wren or kingfisher or warbler and the person has a legit light bulb moment. Suddenly they get it. They're like, Wow, birds really are amazing. I had no idea. It's a wonderful moment to share with someone. Now, because this is the 21st century, you know, the one with all the Marvel movies, addictive smartphones, and aerial drones buzzing around,

because it's the 21st century, I should probably mention social media. When we use the word share these days, it has that extra layer of meaning, doesn't it? You can share the love with people around the world by posting photos and videos of birds online. That's a powerful thing. You can also share photos and videos of yourself and your friends out having a super fun time while searching for birds.

That way, you'll arouse a deep sense of FOMO in anyone looking at your social media posts, a fear of missing out. They'll all immediately buy binoculars and rush out to find birds for themselves. My guess is that social media, whether you love it or hate it, has probably been an effective tool for increasing people's awareness and appreciation of birds. It's also a powerful tool for conservation organizations to get their messages to a wide audience. You can probably think of many other ways to share the love of birds.

This is hopefully common sense stuff. Like I probably don't need to remind you that you can share this podcast, The Science of Birds. You can tell your friends, family, and randos on the street about it. Another option is to do what I did and start your own podcast about birds. How hard can it be? I mean, if I can do it, surely anyone can. Then in your podcast, you can tell your listeners that they should start a podcast about birds. They'll do the same thing with their listeners, and,

so on, add infinitum. Before long, everybody on Earth will have their own podcast about birds. The next category, I decided, is called donating your money, your time, or your entire existence to birds. There are many, many conservation organizations in the world that are fighting every day to protect birds and their natural habitats. Most of these non-profit organizations depend heavily on donations to fund their efforts. If you've got a few extra bucks lying around, consider making a donation to a conservation organization. I've been doing this myself more and more often. If I can afford to buy a fancy coffee once or twice a month, I can definitely kick in some cash to help birds. I mean, I'm probably not going to start.

my own bird conservation organization. There are plenty of those out there already, and those folks are pros at what they do, but I can certainly give them some support. There's the National Audubon Society, the American Bird Conservancy, Birds Canada, Bird Life International, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Bird Life Australia, just to name a few. There are countless smaller local organizations, too. You can choose to support organizations. that help multitudes of bird species, or an organization that focuses on just one. You have many options if you want to donate money to help birds. But maybe you don't have extra money to spare. That's totally understandable.

Perhaps what you do have is some extra time and energy, a free weekend day here and there, for example. Most conservation organizations also depend on help from volunteers. You can get in touch with your local bird-related organization to see how you might be able to volunteer a little of your time. Or a lot of your time, whatever. That's more or less how I got started on my path to becoming a bird science educator and a birding guide. I volunteered for the local Audubon Society and one thing led to another. Now I know I said that I probably won't start my own conservation non-profit, but that doesn't mean you can't. If you have the passion, anything's possible. Don't believe me? Well, let me tell you about Will and Matthew Gladstone,

two brothers from Massachusetts. When Will was 13, he and his younger brother were inspired to start an organization to help the blue-footed booby, Sula Nabuiyai. Will had heard in his science class about this species' dramatic population decline in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. The Gladstone brothers were inspired to do something for the birds, so they started the Blue Feet Foundation. They sell unique blue socks online, each with a cute little blue-footed booby design on them. All of the money they make from selling their socks goes to fund conservation research on the booby population in the Galapagos Islands.

It took them a while to sell their first pair of socks, but within a few years, Blue Feet Foundation had made over $100,000 for bird conservation. How amazing and inspiring is that? I'll put a link to the Blue Feet Foundation in the show notes for this episode. Check it out. Now here's another option for doing something meaningful to help birds. Become a citizen scientist. I talked a lot about this in episode 33 of this podcast.

Check that out if you haven't already. The title is E-Bird and Citizen Science. The basic idea is that you can contribute your observations of birds, your data, to online databases. That data is then available to professional scientists who can use it to do research on birds. Hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists like you and me have already generated billions of data points. This is such a cool thing. The eBird app is one of the best tools for contributing data in the name of citizen science. But there's also I-Naturalist, Project Feeder Watch, and many others.

If, rather than donating only your money or time to birds, you'd rather give them your entire existence, I have just the thing for you. Don't just be a citizen scientist, become a scientist scientist, as in an ornithologist or a conservation biologist, something cool like that. The point is, you can go to college, get some degrees, and become a professional scientist. Heck, someone might even pay you to study birds. There are actually multiple pathways to end up working as a professional bird researcher. But going to school for ages and ages is the most traditional, most straightforward path. This option, becoming an ornithologist or whatever, is pretty hardcore.

It's an enormous commitment. This is one of the complicated ways to help birds that I alluded to in the title of this episode. But it can be absolutely worth it if you have the passion. As a full-blown scientist, you can discover things about birds that nobody knows yet. Or you can gather crucial data on birds that are needed in order to save threatened species. By dedicating years of your life to studying birds, you can help them in. in significant ways. Hey, quick note here.

If you're loving the Science of Birds podcast, I think you'll enjoy Bring Birds Back, a show about the joy of birds and simple ways we can all help them. Host Tenizha Hamilton takes you on a journey in appreciating the beauty and mystery of birds all around us, while meeting people who are helping birds in unexpected ways. Season three is out now. You can stream, bring birds back anywhere you get your podcasts.

The last category I'm using today is, let's call it, ways to help birds at home. Do you remember episode 23 of this podcast, which had the title, Cats versus Birds? You know, the one where I said cats are the worst. It's true, but not as in I don't like them, because I do. But cats are one of the worst threats to wild birds. Listen to that episode if you don't believe me.

If you really love birds, you'll want to keep your kitty inside. Free roaming and feral cats kill billions of birds every year. Billions. Get your little fur balls, spayed and neutered, and keep them inside. But dogs are cool, right? Well, dogs aren't nearly as bad as cats. That's true. and I love dogs, but when we're out walking our pooches, for the love of birds, can we all

please, please follow the posted rules in natural areas? Dogs can cause a lot of trouble for birds and other wildlife. Many protected areas don't allow dogs at all, or if they do, we're often required to keep our canine beasts on a leash. I can't tell you how frustrated I get when I see people blatantly disregarding the dog-related rules in a nature reserve. It chaps my hide. It grinds my gears, if you will. But do I say something to the offending person? Tell them to follow the rules? Generally, no. I'm a non-confrontational introvert, after all. And the couple times I did say something, the person got all angry and defensive. Not my idea of a good time. But hey, let's return to your house, how to help birds where you live. You can put feeders out, yes, and put out a bird bath.

Your birds will be pleased by such things. Better yet, create some natural habitat in your yard by bringing in native plants, like trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Add some rock piles, brush piles, and maybe a little pond, and suddenly you have a veritable avian paradise right out your back door. Whether or not you have native plants around your house and garden, consider not using pesticides or herbicides. These are generally lethal to birds, or try using organic alternatives. Another major problem for birds are collisions with windows and other human structures. By some estimates, one billion birds are killed by window collisions every year, just in the U.S. and Canada alone. There are several ways you can make the windows around your house safer for birds.

The general idea is to put something on or near the glass, stickers, paint, film, string, anything that alerts birds to the presence of a dangerous hard surface. Artificial lights are also responsible for countless bird deaths. The reason has to do with how birds migrate. Many species migrate at night. they navigate using the stars among other things. Birds see our city lights and they get all confused. Birds don't know which way to go and in their disoriented state they end up either smashing

into a window or building, or they just fly around aimlessly until they die of exhaustion. If you live in a town or city, there may be a lights out program you can participate in. This is where a local conservation group coordinates with the city government, government, business owners, and residents to turn exterior lights off at night during periods of peak migration in the fall and spring. Okay, so let's see. We've got keep the kitty inside, don't grind my gears about your dog, use native plants and stuff, no pesticides, put stuff on your windows, and turn off your lights.

That leaves us with just a few more options to consider. These mostly have to do with how we consume things. the things we buy and use up again and again. Our food choices can make a big difference in the world, at least collectively when lots of us make similar choices. If you eat in a way that minimizes harm to the natural environment, you're also helping birds. Indirectly, but still.

This includes choosing organic food, since no toxic pesticides were involved in the process. Or you could kick it up a notch and be a rock star. You could choose a vegetarian or vegan diet. A plant-based diet is generally the least harmful to the natural world. It has the lowest carbon footprint. And hey, by not eating chickens and turkeys and all those little feathered friends, we're directly helping birds by, you know, not killing them.

Some food products are officially labeled as bird-friendly, coffee in particular. I did an episode all about this a while back. A bird-friendly coffee plantation has to meet a bunch of standards, many of which are aimed at maximizing bird species diversity on the plantation. And last but not least, you can help birds by just living a generally more green lifestyle. You know what that means, I'm sure. Using less plastic, recycling as much as you can, driving less, conserving electricity,

basically reducing your carbon footprint and making less icky garbage. There are 8 billion people on the planet now. The more of us that adopt an eco-friendly green lifestyle, even partially, the better chances our birds and natural habitats have of surviving long into the future. You're probably doing some or even a whole bunch of these things already. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir. But I assume that listeners of the Science of Birds podcast are pretty much the most conscientious and caring people that ever exist. no doubt you guys have your hearts in the right place. But do I do all of the things I suggested here today? Nope, I sure don't. Do I want to do more? You betcha. I do. Maybe we can choose to be

better for birds together. We can take our games to the next level. Let's not be emotionless Androids that see birds as merely objects to be poked and prodded and studied for the cold purposes of pure science. I take offense to that remark. Let's embrace the warm and fuzzy feelings we have toward these wonderful feathered creatures. Let's turn our compassion into action. Wait, wait. There's actually one last thing I forgot to tell you.

I wasn't sure how to fit this into the other categories. If you happen to live in a democratic country, such as the United States, you can help birds by voting. Vote in local, state, and national elections. Vote for laws and for people that protect birds, wildlife, and the natural environment. Let your voice be heard. For the love of birds. I said for the love of birds, not crickets. Anyway, now we can cue the outro music.

there it is thanks for listening to the episode i hope you get inspired to try some of these things out in the coming months i realize this was a more touchy-feely episode and not as sciencey as usual but hey bird conservation is important yo if all the birds die what point would there be in studying ornithology what would be the point of anything now you know how to help birds but if you'd like to help the podcast, you can check out my Patreon page at patreon.com slash science of birds. And a warm greeting to my newest patrons, Wesley Bredden and Liz Frith. Welcome and thank you guys very much for becoming supporters. You can also shoot me an email if you have something you'd like to share with me,

your thoughts about the podcast, your hopes and dreams for saving birds, or why you think you should be able to walk your dog anywhere you want and I should just shut my big fat mouth about it. Just kidding. You wouldn't say that, would you? In any case, my email address is Ivan at Scienceofbirds.com. You can check out the show notes for this episode,

which is number 66, on the Science of Birds website, scienceofbirds.com. This is Ivan Philipson, wishing you the very best of days. Cheers.