How Can You Make Your Home Bird-Friendly?

COURTNEY McCLURE The Standard

UXBRIDGE: Last week, two members of the Bird Friendly Selwyn, Carly Davenport and Derek Connelly, approached Uxbridge Council, requesting support on their application for the Nature Canada Bird Friendly Town certificate.

The council expressed their approval of the application.

However, Ms. Davenport said, she and Mr. Connelly are discussing details with council staff.

“I’m excited for [further] collaboration with the Township, moving forward,” she said.

According to Carly, the bird-friendly city certification lasts for two years and then the team has to renew the certificate.

The bird-friendly cities program was started by Nature Canada, in 2018, and was created to address the population decline in North American Migratory Birds.

According to Geoff Carpentier, a local bird-lover and zoologist, most birds which eat bugs have declined by about 70 percent, in the last fifty years. Therefore, there are only about 30 percent of these birds left.

“We try to do what we can [to protect birds],” said Mr. Carpentier.

There are a few things you can do as a homeowner to help keep birds safe and make your city a friendlier place for local birds.

For example, you can keep your cats indoors at all times, or build them an outdoor enclosure, where birds cannot enter. Cats count for tens of billions of unnecessary bird deaths, according to Mr. Carpentier.

The second largest contributor of bird decline is bird-to-window collisions. To avoid these incidents, you can attach vinyl decals to your windows. The vinyl gives birds a visual cue there is a window in front of them, so they are more likely to avoid it.

To make your home more bird-friendly, you can also leave portions of your lawn un-mowed.

People, likewise, can work with pollinators when mowing their lawns. For example, if you learn the pollination cycle of bees, you can avoid disturbing their pollination process while you’re mowing your lawn.

Letting more bugs live, in these unmown parts, will provide food for local birds and other surrounding wildlife. Doing this would also be beneficial to various municipalities on municipal properties because it would allow them to save money on gas for the community lawnmowers.

To learn more about the bird-friendly certificate, please visit naturecanada.ca.