Eating chocolate is now better for birds, humans, and the planet. The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) has expanded its Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification program to include standards for cocoa farming. This is the only certification that guarantees 100 percent of the cocoa produced comes from farms that conserve birds and other … Read More>>

Wildlife Forever and the USDA Forest Service recently announced the winners of their second annual Songbird Art Contest, which celebrates bird-themed art created by children and teenagers. The contest serves to bring awareness to the importance of songbirds and their critical conservation needs, and was launched last year to expand on the success of Wildlife … Read More>>

Poetry and nature essays can be powerful ways for people to connect with the natural world. A new anthology released this month, titled Dawn Songs: A Birdwatcher's Field Guide to the Poetics of Migration and edited by Jamie K. Reaser and J. Drew Lanham, features lyrical reflections on our relationships with birds. The book's release … Read More>>

Glass kills up to a billion birds a year in the United States alone, with migratory songbird species like the Brown Creeper and Ovenbird suffering some of the worst casualties. As more people and businesses consider ways to make their buildings bird-friendly, it is important to be clear-eyed about ways to make these efforts as … Read More>>

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Chilean conservation organization Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre de Chile (ROC) are celebrating an important win for a secretive seabird this month. One of the biggest breeding colonies of the Markham's Storm-Petrel is now protected by a community reserve, thanks to years of effort by ROC and … Read More>>

Pesticides called “neonicotinoids” are bad news for bees, and for other invertebrates and grassland birds like the Western Meadowlark as well. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed thousands of surveys of a once-widespread pollinator called the Western Bumble Bee, a species that serves as an … Read More>>

A court battle continues over Madison, Wisconsin's bird-friendly building ordinance, adopted unanimously by the Madison Common Council in 2020 and requiring new large construction and expansion projects to use modern bird-safe strategies and materials that allow birds to see and avoid glass.   In August 2022, the Dane County Circuit Court upheld the ordinance following … Read More>>

Avian flu continues to infect and kill wild birds around the world, leaving researchers struggling to understand this new, deadlier version of a historically mild pathogen. For birds that nest in large, dense colonies, like seabirds, the impacts have been especially devastating. This November, in Peru alone, an estimated 14,000 seabirds died from the disease. However, … Read More>>

As world leaders gather in Montreal for the United Nations' (UN) COP15 biodiversity conference, and UN environment chief Inger Andersen warns that “we are at war with nature,” the future for the Endangered Lear's Macaw hangs in the balance in Bahia, Brazil. So does the way of life for 600 families whose communal lands are … Read More>>

For 10 years, a consortium of partners* led by Pacific Rim Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and supported by American Bird Conservancy (ABC) have worked at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Kaua‘i to establish a predator-free colony of Endangered Hawaiian Petrel (‘U‘au) in a bid to save the species from extinction. … Read More>>