Part of the ‘Hope to action’ series

Please see my previous related thoughts on this matter:
It is enough and Hope to action

---

Contrary to what you may have heard, birds are real. Birds matter. There are approximately 10,000 known species of birds and they represent the most diverse terrestrial vertebrates on our planet. Additionally, they are generally conspicuous to us (with some occasional frustrating exceptions), which allows us to appreciate their beauty and is beneficial to our mental health. Bird populations also serve as excellent indicators of ecological health. Unfortunately the fact that bird populations in North America have declined so drastically in the last 50 years does not bode well.

But we will not lose hope, and to create change we need to convert hope to action. There are actions we, as individuals, can take to help birds and by extension humanity. As Dr. J. Drew Lanham points out in his “A Convergent Destiny for Birds and People” essay in the 2022 State of the Birds Report:

Doing the right things for birds benefits people. Doing right by one another as humans benefits all else. Same earth. Same fate. It will be all of us understanding common plight, and in that knowing of shared geographies, life requisites, and destinies between feathered and humanity, a move forward on this road to recovery.

J. Drew Lanham, https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2022/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/state-of-the-birds-2022-spreads.pdf

As part of this “Hope to action” series, I’ll be sharing some recommendations from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and many others on ways you can help birds and ultimately be a responsible steward and fellow citizen of the natural world. My intention is to localize the actions where applicable so there is an added degree of relevance for those of us living in the Atlanta area.