5 Things You Can Do to Preserve Birds and Their Habitats

5 Things You Can Do

1. Garden and Landscape with Native Plants

Gardening with native plant species and incorporating "mini meadows" into your landscape design will not only support imperiled bird populations but invite more birds to your own backyard! Conduct some research on which plants, shrubs, and grasses are native to your ecosystem and watch your garden come alive with diverse bird species.

2. Pick Up and Recycle Plastic Waste

It's estimated that there are about 330 billion pounds of trash on our coasts and in our oceans, with another 17 billion pounds of plastic entering the marine environment each year. While we should always strive to reduce and recycle as much as possible, one can go further by picking up plastic waste they come across while out and about. Plastic waste poses a serious risk to birds that can ingest or become entangled in them.

3. Install a Bird-Saving Window Screen or Adhesive

Birds see differently than we do, making it hard to perceive glass windows, causing collisions which account for up to 1 billion bird deaths annually in the US. Two easy solutions are the installation of insect screens or translucent window tape; both are barely noticeable to us humans, but massively helpful to birds. Read more about solutions to prevent bird collisions.

4. Keep Children and Pets Away from Nesting Areas

Coming across a nesting bird on the beach or finding a nest in your own backyard is a beautiful event (and an indication you've done a good job creating a bird-friendly environment). But be wary of pets and young children getting too close or interfering with bird nests. Adult birds can abandon their nests if they don't feel safe.

5. Leave Birds You Find on the Ground Undisturbed

Especially during the spring and early summer, baby birds will be hatching and learning to fly. This can be a process of trial and error, and sometimes new birds need some time on the ground to figure it all out. The parents will typically be watching from above, so do not scoop up a baby bird on the ground unless there's apparent immediate danger.

Another Way to Help

We were so inspired by the American Bird Conservancy's mission to not only stand up for birds but also their coastal habitats. This Earth Day, we knew we wanted to support their mission while also creating beautiful tote designs. Though we wanted to showcase many more, we eventually landed on four unique designs honoring iconic water birds: Great Blue Heron, Loon, Puffin, and Osprey.

Ospreys are known for their precarious nests atop manmade structures like telephone poles, channel markers, and duck blinds. Such platforms have become an important tool in reestablishing Ospreys in areas where they had disappeared. In some locales nests are placed almost exclusively on artificial structures. Near these nesting sites, ospreys are a common spectacle soaring over beaches and waterways while hunting for fish. That imagery inspired our designer to depict an osprey in flight, and pay tribute with our own watercolor rendition, wings spread, scanning for prey.

For the colorful, local-to-Maine Puffin, we came across a vibrant print of the species looking up to the sky, which struck us unusually funny and adorable. Then we learned from ABC's Bird Library that the Atlantic Puffin's genus name Fratercula means "little brother" or "friar," probably a reference to its black-and-white plumage and upright posture when perched on nesting islands. Its most distinctive feature — a colorful, triangular, and laterally flattened bill — gives this bird the nickname "sea clown" or "sea parrot." We knew we had to bring this colorful burrowing species to life on our iconic recycled sail cloth tote.

The Loon is one design we wish could encompass the majestic sound of this iconic species—perhaps the most identifiable bird call. Ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent observed: "The woodland lakes would be solitudes, indeed, did they lack the finishing touch to make the picture complete–the weird and mournful cry of the loon, as he calls to his mate or greets some new arrival. Who has ever paddled a canoe, or cast a fly, or pitched a tent in the north woods and has not stopped to listen to this wail of the wilderness? And what would the wilderness be without it?"

We wanted to show the Loon in its habitat and its life on the water. Depicting its delicate wake and ripples along the lake water they inhabit, the Loon in our design shows the handsome waterbird in graceful movement.

Sustainably made in the USA from recycled sail cloth, our tote series features four wild bird species that thrive in waterfront habitats challenged by environmental changes. Through May 4, 20% of sales of the American Bird Collection will be donated to the American Bird Conservancy.

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About American Bird Conservancy

Since 1994, the nonprofit has conserved millions of acres, benefiting more than 3,000 bird species. The org has also made significant strides to prevent the extinction of the most endangered birds, conserve important bird habitats, reduce top threats to birds, and build an Americas-wide community of bird conservationists.