Author: Conejo Valley Audubon

This is the time of year when Conejo Valley Audubon is putting the finishing touches to its Lawn to Habitat program; a program that has flourished for the last seven years thanks in large measure to people in the community who want to make a difference in the natural world. Why is such a program so important? To quote the Handbook of Bird Biology from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Every piece of outdoor space, from city parks and suburban backyards to rural farmlands and forests, can serve as habitat that helps conserve birds. The elements that birds need to survive – shelter, nesting habitat, food and water – can be maintained in all kinds of backyards, schoolyards, and parks.” In observing nearby natural habitats where birds can be found, such as the local oak woodlands and hillside chaparral, there are several things that are apparent. The native plants offer ready protection from predators as well as safe places to build a nest and successfully raise young. These same native plants support the variety of bugs and worms essential to the nutritional requirements of fast-growing chicks. When walking your native habitat, i.e., yard, it is important to remember that bugs are essential so no pesticides or lawn chemicals should be used.

Placing water close to protective shrubbery is also important. A simple shallow plate that is about an inch deep provides birds with drinking water as well as a place to bathe and to cool off. I will never forget seeing a young Coopers Hawk standing in one of these dishes in my yard on a very hot day. He looked a little out of place and he certainly lost any ability to sneak up on the songbirds at the feeders, but he was hot and needed to cool off.

In talking about providing a safe habitat for birds it must, also, be noted that cats should be kept indoors all year round. In the US alone, about 2.4 billion birds are killed annually by free-roaming house cats.

There are many ways to create a bird-friendly habitat from a sterile expanse of green lawn and now is the time to do it.

In the year 2020, there are many things competing for one’s attention. It’s the year of COVID-19, the year of a very contentious election, fires are seemingly burning everywhere in California. It may be hard to remember, or for some, to believe that birds are important. There is the thought that we should care more about people than those cute little brown birds; that money should be
spent making peoples lives better, roads smoother, housing more affordable and taxes less. Indeed, we have a moral obligation to care for our fellow human beings. So how can we show the
importance of birds for everyone, not just for birders? According to an Audubon article from April 2013, “If we want policymakers and the public to take conservation seriously, then perhaps we must offer credible research showing that healthy bird populations are essential to human welfare.”

The article goes on to offer a number of reasons that birds are more than important, they are essential. As I pointed out last month, birds are some of natures best ways to control insects. “Insect-eating birds protect apple orchards in the Netherlands and safeguard Missouri Ozark white oaks, whose lumbar is highly sought by furniture makers. And they reduce pest levels at organic wineries.” Don’t mess with my wine.

We are all familiar with the canary in a coal mine. Coal miners would carry these little sentinels into the mines with them to help detect dangerous levels of gases such as carbon monoxide. Today, scientists follow the health of Common Loons in New York State to better understand the impact of atmospheric mercury from coal-burning power plants and incinerators. As the birds are very territorial, have a life span of 20+ years and are at the top of the food web, scientists have been able to correlate their breeding success with mercury contamination providing “evidence for the need to stringently regulate mercury and acidic emissions on national and global scales.”

Birding and birders help support the economy spending roughly $40 billion annually by feeding birds, purchasing equipment and traveling…well, one of these days we will be able to do that.

Last, but no means least, one cannot discount the importance of birds on a more emotional level. People have always admired birds using them as adornment on the walls of caves, in temples and on the walls of your home and mine, no doubt. Beethoven quoted the cuckoo in his Symphony #6. Storks deliver us at birth and owls mourn our deaths.

Birds are an integral part of who we are and how we exist. It’s our job to make sure they remain.

One of the programs that Conejo Valley Audubon is involved with is called LAWNS TO HABITAT. It has been working with local residents for the past several years to create urban oases for birds. Why are birds so important that we would be involved with this?

1. Pest Management: fifty percent of birds consume mostly insects during their life and nearly seventy-five percent eat insects at least occasionally. Native plants support the type of bugs that our local breeding birds need to successfully raise a brood of chicks.
2. Seed Dispersal: approximately 25% of all native seed plants in the world are dispersed by birds. Seed dispersal in turn impacts plant communities and the wildlife that live in those communities.
3. Pollination: over 1,000 birds worldwide pollinate native plants. In the United States, this job falls mainly to the vari-ety of hummingbirds we have here. Think about the Allen’s and Anna’s Hummingbirds that zip around your garden. Hummingbirds have evolved with native plants, which are best adapted to local growing seasons, climate, and soil. Hummers prefer large, tubular flowers that are often (but not always) red in color; another reason to go with native plants.
4. Carcass and Waste Disposal: when thinking about your favorite bird, it’s possible that the Turkey Vulture is not on the top of your list, but they are uniquely adapted to dispose of dead animals. To understand this benefit, think about how these animals be-came food for vultures. Some may have died from vehicle collisions or other human-related causes, but a number of the carcasses vultures feed upon are victims of disease. Generations of being an “obligate scavenger” — a term describing animals that feed almost exclusively on carrion — has developed a vulture digestive system that is highly acidic and is able to neutralize bacteria and other harmful organisms that are consumed along with decaying flesh. While this really isn’t pertinent to Lawns to Habitat, I just wanted to put in a plug for the oft-misunderstood Turkey Vulture.

This is, by no means, a comprehensive list of the importance of birds. We matter to the birds, too. What we do to create a space that a bird will find welcoming is something of incomparable value. We are what hope looks like to a bird.