http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/<snip>
What You Can Do
Don't be intimidated by all the numbers—here are 12 ways everyone can help to keep common birds common and reverse the decline of globally threatened species. Start small, but think big.
PERSONAL
1. Make your yard a haven for birds by creating a pesticide-free habitat of native plants, providing supplemental food and water, and putting out birdhouses to encourage nesting. Also, keep cats indoors and add decals—such as dots or bird silhouettes—to clear-glass windows. The Audubon At Home website has more handy tips.
2. Go birdwatching and share your enthusiasm by inviting others to join you. Wherever you go, be sure to remind the businesses you patronize and the people you meet in the community that you're there because they've preserved important avian habitat. For an example of a birding "calling card," visit the Florida Birding Trail web site. Look for other opportunities at www.audubon.org.
3. Make sure your purchases help bird populations, not hurt them. For instance, Audubon’s shade-grown coffee creates important winter habitat for migratory songbirds, organic produce is grown without agricultural chemicals that kill beneficial insects and pollute the environment, and nontoxic cleaning products keep harmful chemicals out of watersheds.
4. Participate in citizen-science projects, like the Christmas Bird Count and the Great Backyard Bird Count, which further our knowledge of avian populations. Audubon chapters, nature centers, and state offices are a valuable resource to help get you started; contact information for them is located here.
5. Adopt a local Important Bird Area, a site designated as essential habitat for one or more bird species. Participate in bird counts there, help with maintenance and restoration efforts, and educate your neighbors about its value. You can also nominate a new site to your state IBA coordinator; contact information for your state's coordinator can be found here.
POLITICAL
6. Protect wildlife habitat and Important Bird Areas by advocating more funding for the Land and Water Conservation Act, which allocates money to expand and protect national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges, besides offering matching grants for state and community open-space projects; the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which gives matching grants for projects that benefit wetlands-associated birds in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; and the National Wildlife Refuge System, 95 million acres of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for habitat and recreation.
7. Help state wildlife agencies save "at-risk" bird species before they become endangered, by asking Congress to increase funding for the State Wildlife Grants Program. These grants enable state agencies to implement on-the-ground conservation with public and private landowners, avoiding the cost and controversy of last-ditch recovery efforts. Each state is currently writing a wildlife conservation strategy, but additional funding will be required to carry them all out.
8. Speak out for long-distance migrants, many of which nest in Canada in summer, and fly south to Mexico, Central and South America, or the Caribbean for the winter. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act provides matching grants for projects that conserve Neotropical species through habitat protection, education, research, and monitoring. This important piece of legislation should be fully funded at the $5 million level currently authorized by Congress, and the authorized amount should be increased as well. Projects in the United States and Latin America are now eligible for grants; Canadian projects should also be included.
9. Fight back against invasive species, which threaten more than one-third of the birds on the Audubon WatchList. Invasives are the chief menace in national wildlife refuges and Important Bird Areas, as well as in the privately owned landscapes that connect these habitats. Two bills pending in the current Congress would help combat them: The Species Protection and Conservation of the Environment Act earmarks grant money to states to control invasives where they pose a significant risk to native birds and wildlife; and the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act prevents and controls introductions of aquatic invasive species.
10. Defend the Endangered Species Act. If passed, recently introduced bills would cripple the designation of "critical habitat" required for a species' recovery and throw up roadblocks to the listing of species. The Bush administration has also proposed excluding wildlife experts from the process of determining if pesticides harm endangered species.
11. The report shows that grassland and shrubland birds need to be a higher priority for conservation. Thus, public and private lands that support grassland and shrubland birds should receive special attention for conservation action in agricultural conservation programs and the Farm Bill.
12. Bird conservation is being thrown a curve through global warming that affects the location and persistence of appropriate bird habitat. Action to begin the long-term process of addressing climate change must begin and The McCain-Lieberman "Climate Stewardship Act," is a start.
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