Birds In |A Man-Made World

With the number of birds declining, we owe it to ourselves to do what we can to help them.

6/3/20251 min read

As a kid, I can remember waking up to the sounds of beautiful birds and learned to recognize many just through their calls. I never thought that one day we would have to curtail certain activities to allow them the same freedoms we have.

For example, we build tall buildings that glisten in the sun from mirror-like surfaces. Birds do not understand the concept of a mirror and often try to go through severely injuring themselves or dying in the process.

We have known this for a long time and patrols of people have taken up the task in the early morning of looking for feathered corpses and aiding the injured where they can. But this band-aid activity should be supplemented with measures to prevent such events in the first place.

So it is fitting that in Chicago where the bird kill is high, they have outfitted a building called Lakeside Centre with a design of overlaid dots. This was done a year ago and the results offer hope since the finding is a 95% increase in positive life-affirming changes.

Many such buildings have now adopted the same method across North America to aid the situation since bird numbers are dropping for reasons like this and others like global warming and a lack of wetlands. The stories are too numerous to ignore.

Other reasons for diminishing numbers include, pesticide use, cats following their killer instincts, garbage that is dangerous for them like six-pack holders and plastic bags and lack of ground cover to protect them from predators.

You can help by making a bird-friendly back yard and keeping your cat indoors. Never use pesticides and start reading labels to ensure you know what you are adding to your plants and soil.

Advocate for changes in any glass structures so our feathered-friends can live in a more natural way without suffering, Join a group to monitor their numbers and enjoy their antics. Grow natural seed giving species of plants to aid them and keep them nearby or include many flowers to draw insects that they feed on.