Fall is migration season — here’s how humans can help declining bird populations reach their destinations

Fall might be a favourite season of many, but it’s considered a challenging time for birds as they start to migrate south for the winter.

According to the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care Centre, citing a 2019 study published in the journal Science, the world has lost 3-billion birds worldwide since 1970 — a statistic the centre is calling “absolutely staggering” and a problem that not only needs attention, but action from humans.

“A lot of birds will travel thousands of kilometres from their summer home to their breeding grounds and back,” Juliette Marczuk, chair of the centre, told The Sam Laprade Show on Friday. “The long trip in and of itself is a gruelling one and they encounter a lot of obstacles such as buildings and vehicles, extreme weather and domestic animals such as cats. Something a lot of people might not know is that a good number of birds will travel at night, and the light pollution from the cities at night can become disorienting and the birds can fly into buildings during migration periods.”

Breaking down the numbers further, Marczuk says that insectivore birds (birds that feed on insects) have declined by 59 per cent in Canada, while grassland birds have declined by 57 per cent.

Eighty per cent of those bird species, she adds, have been newly placed on the threatened or endangered lists. These include birds like swallows, for example.

In North America, that works out to be about one in four birds Marczuk points out.

A lot of the decline has to do with a handful of issues, many of which include human-related causes.

“We’re talking about cats being the number one killers of birds, window collisions is number two and things like climate change, weather, insecticides.”

As Marczuk explains, migration routes are selected by the birds over thousands of years based on resources that are found along the way.

“The point of the stop is, of course, to refuel and rest. The longer the journey, the more perilous the journey actually is. But unlike humans who stop for an hour or two, birds will actually spend a week or sometimes two weeks in a stopover location.”

But there are ways humans can help.

First, keep cats indoors.

Second, make windows more visible and safer for birds both day and night by installing screens, a film or paint.

Helping out with food sources can also be considerate and anyone can do this by planting native shrubs and flowers.

Lastly, it’s very important to avoid pesticides. This helps both the insect food source be where the birds know it should be, as well as keep the birds from getting sick.