For the Birds: Making Irondequoit More Bird-Friendly

This week CIG co-hosted in a presentation with the Irondequoit Conservation Board in collaboration with the Irondequoit Public Library, focused on best practices for bird conservation. On Wednesday August 19, June Summers, the president of the Genesee Valley Audubon Society, gave a talk "From Windows to Wildflowers: Bird-Friendly Yards, Homes, and Community Spaces." The 20+ attendees learned about lots of ways to help keep birds in our community safer, from native plantings that provide food and shelter to window design that prevents collisions. 

Whether you have a backyard, a balcony, or simply want to help advocate for greener urban design in places around town like schools and businesses, there are simple, practical steps June shared that we can all take to make our built environments safer and more welcoming for birds.

Here were some of the key points for protecting birds shared at the event:

• Keep your cats indoors. In the United States, free-ranging cats

  are estimated to kill more birds annually than any other direct human-caused source of bird deaths, and similar impacts exist globally, as well. (Image by Ivan Radic)

  

• Turn off lights at night, especially during spring and fall migration. If you do have outdoor lights on at night, make them safer for birds by following simple guidelines.

  

• Advocate for bird-friendly development in new buildings, and take steps to mitigate reflection and transparency of windows on existing buildings. Many communities have bird-friendly policies that can serve as models, and lots of resources exist to help retrofit windows, buildings, and yards.

  

Migrating birds could be traveling through the Rochester area anytime between now and the end of October. So while these tips are critical ways to support birds year round, they are especially important now and in the months ahead. Thank you again to our co-sponsors for the event, the Irondequoit Conservation Board and the Irondequoit Public Library, for helping bring this conversation to our community!

What steps are you taking to help make our town safer for birds as peak fall migration approaches? What questions do you still have? Let us know in the comments section below!