Launch of the SOS Save Our Songbirds campaign

This news comes from our friends at the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership, and it focuses on a Wisconsin-based songbird conservation initiative. While the details are specific to the Badger State, we’re sharing them because songbirds are in trouble around the world and the following tips will help birds everywhere. – the editor

Beautiful bird songs and plumage are welcome signs of spring, but many people are noticing that their feeders – and nearby fields and forests – have fallen silent as a 30% loss of North American birds hits Wisconsin.

To help reverse this loss, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership announced the launch of an action campaign, SOS Save Our Songbirds, to encourage more people to take three steps at home to help the birds.

“Our songbirds are in crisis, in Wisconsin and everywhere,” says NRF Executive Director David Clutter. “The pleasure we have in seeing and hearing them will be lost if we don’t act now. The other mental health, economic and environmental benefits we get from birds will also disappear. »

The SOS Save Our Songbirds campaign is calling on Wisconsin residents to take one or more actions at home and providing resources to make it easier.

The three actions are:

• Add plants that are good for birds
• Reduce window threats by treating a problem window for birds
• Buy coffee grown in a bird-friendly way to protect their winter habitats.

Information on the importance of these actions and basic recommendations on how to apply them at home can be found in the Help Birds at Home section of the SOS website.

Baltimore Oriole. Photo by Ryan Brady

Karen Etter Hale, president of the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership, says SOS Save Our Songbirds empowers people to have a positive impact on the birds they love.

“We ask everyone to try making one or more of these small changes at home,” she says. “It all adds up. And if you are already taking these steps, thank you!

“We also ask that you please share what you are doing with your neighbours, family and friends so they can do good things for the birds too.”

Reverse losses by providing more and safer habitats

In North America, songbird families like native sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches have suffered the greatest losses according to a 2019 research study which found that 3 billion birds, or 30 % of the continent’s bird populations, had been extirpated since 1970. Wisconsin is experiencing similar trends, grassland birds such as Bobolink and Western and Eastern Meadowlark, and forest birds such as Evening Grosbeak, Connecticut Warbler and Canada Jay, with some of the most significant declines.

Scientists widely consider habitat loss to be the primary driver of bird loss. SOS Save Our Songbirds urges people to add habitat and make it safer by addressing problematic windows near habitat and birdbaths. Studies have shown that up to 1 billion birds die each year after colliding with windows in American buildings, nearly half of the windows in homes.

By purchasing bird-friendly coffee, Wisconsin residents are helping to protect the stopover and wintering grounds of many Wisconsin birds. Forests in coffee-growing regions of Central and South America are being cleared to grow more coffee, but some growers maintain a diversity of bird-friendly trees.

People who subscribe to SOS Save Our Songbirds e-updates will also receive seasonal discount offers to help them take the three steps, according to Lisa Gaumnitz, who coordinates the SOS Save Our Songbirds campaign.

Learn more

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