Our Strategy and Impact
Urban environments pose unique challenges for birds including altered access to resources, increased collisions with buildings, reduced habitat quality and connectivity, pollution, and domestic cats. Birds Connect Seattle envisions Seattle as a place where both people and birds thrive. Learn more about our programs working in harmony to reduce these urban hazards and engage people in initiatives that benefit birds, nature, and the neighborhoods we live.
Bird-window Collisions
In July 2020, Birds Connect Seattle launched Bird-Safe Seattle with new strategies to understand bird-window collisions locally and develop solutions to reduce bird mortality through bird-safe building practices.
Learn more about our strategies that reduce urban hazards to birds.
Urban Tree Canopy
Our urban forests provide wildlife with shelter, food, and nesting habitat. They also have numerous ecological benefits including urban flood resistance, cooling during heat waves, and improve air quality.
Learn more about Birds Connect Seattle’s participation on the Urban Forestry Commission and our leadership in the Seattle Tree Canopy Nework.
Rodenticides and Pesticides
Rat poisens, commonly used to manage pests, can have unintended concequences on birds and other wildlife that consume rodents. Herbicides and insecticides can also have negative impacts on bird food sources, water, and habitat.
Learn more about pesticide alternatives.
Community Science
Birds Connect Seattle organizes and administers five different community science surveys, allowing members of the community to contribute to our local and national scientific understanding of birds.
Learn more about how these Community Science programs are shaping our understanding and urban conservation initiatives.
Free-Roaming Cats
Cats kill 1.3–4 billion birds each year in the U.S. alone. Keeping cats indoors keeps both the cat and wild bird populations safer.
Learn more about the impact of free-roaming cats.
Community Education
Birds Connect Seattle offers a variety of activities for adults and children to learn more about urban conservation, including diverse perspectives that help us understand how we can all come together to do our part for birds.
Visit our calendar for upcoming workshops, events, and classes.
Habitat Quality, Connectivity, and Land Use
Capitol Hill Connections is a collaborative effort by Seattle’s Urban Bird Treaty City partners to restrict pesticide use at Cal Anderson Park, engage the Capitol Hill community in park stewadship events, and develop a vegetation plan for habitat enhancements along 11th Ave E. The planned enhancements would help connect habitat patches from Seattle University up to Volunteer Park through the most densely populated urban village in the Pacific Northwest.
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Birds Connect Seattle is a leading member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Urban Bird Treaty, recognizing the importance of protecting urban bird habitat, reducing hazards to migrating birds and connecting people to nature. Birds Connect Seattle leads the coalition of partners committed to protect migrating birds in the Pacific Flyway.
Should We Feed Birds? What the Science Says About the Impacts of Bird Feeding
Feeding birds is one of the most common ways people connect with nature—but is it helping or harming wildlife? Learn what science says and how to feed birds responsibly.
Executive Order to Protect Seattle’s Urban Tree Canopy on Private Property
After years of community advocacy, we’re celebrating Seattle’s new Executive Order while pushing for the bold action still needed to reverse canopy loss and close widening equity gaps.
10 Ways to Help Birds
Birds need your help. Here are 10 ways you can help safeguard birds for future generations.