Spring seems exquisitely bird-friendly as migrating birds return to blooming flowers, warming temperatures, and fresh gardens, but there are many threats that face birds as the season changes. Understanding these spring threats to birds gives birders an edge in minimizing hazards to make life easier for their favorite spring species. The safer the birds can be, the more opportunities there will be for fantastic spring birding.

How Spring Threatens Birds

Spring is a season of rapid and sometimes unpredictable changes, and those changes can threaten birds in many ways. The most dire hazards birds face in spring include…

• Late Season Storms: A late winter blizzard or early spring freeze can be a grave threat to early migrants, particularly since shelter is harder to find before deciduous trees have bloomed. Flash floods from spring rains can also pose a threat to birds in low areas, such as ground-nesting species.
• Lack of Food: In early spring, winter foods are nearly depleted and tender buds, new insects, or nectar-producing flowers have not yet become fully available, especially as birds return further north, leading to malnutrition and starvation.
• Window Collisions: Reflective glass is a year-round threat, and migrating birds can be easily deceived by windows, leading to collisions. Even if an injury is not fatal, it can easily prevent the bird from completing its migration in a timely manner, affecting if the bird can claim a territory or attract a mate.

• Habitat Loss: Many birds return to the same geographic region each year to raise the next generation, but changes to that habitat over the winter – either through natural disasters or development – can leave birds without a suitable breeding ground.
• Predators: Predators are lean and hungry in spring, and birds with colorful breeding plumage or intricate courtship displays are at greater risk of attracting attention. This is particularly true in early spring, when natural cover such as grasses and shrubbery have not yet regrown from the winter.
• Pesticides and Herbicides: Many homeowners and businesses treat their lawns and landscaping with chemicals in spring, and the concentration of those chemicals can be deadly to birds. Even without direct chemical exposure, birds suffer when the insects they need to eat are destroyed.
• Disease: Feeders are a welcome source of spring food, but dirty feeders easily breed diseases that quickly spread among spring flocks. Diseases can also be spread in dirty water from unwashed bird baths or ground feeding areas that have not been cleaned since the snow melted.
• Fishing Line: Many outdoor activities are popular in spring, and fishing is a particular threat to birds when monofilament fishing line breaks but is not properly disposed of. Both adult birds and their chicks can tangle in the line, causing devastating injuries or death.

• Litter: Getting outdoors for picnics, hikes, and parties is popular in spring, but every bit of litter left behind can be a threat to birds. Not only may birds be tempted to eat indigestible litter, but bits and pieces incorporated into nests can threaten young chicks.
• Dangerous Bird Houses: Birds eagerly look for nesting sites in spring, but unsafe houses without proper ventilation or drainage, or ones with perches to give predators a foothold, can be grave threats to the birds that use them.

How You Can Help

There may be many threats birds face in spring, but conscientious birders can minimize the hazards and enjoy spring birds without worries.

• Provide safe, suitable shelter for all backyard birds, including roosting boxes, a natural brush pile, and snags to give birds many options for staying out of harsh weather.
• Keep feeders and baths refilled often and cleaned regularly to minimize the risk of spreading diseases. Furthermore, adjust foods to provide just the treats spring birds want most so less seed will spoil or go to waste.
• Take steps to discourage feral cats and always keep pet cats indoors. Also, be aware of invasive predators in your area and know what steps can be taken to protect native wildlife against these introduced threats.
• Minimize or completely eliminate outdoor chemicals, and never use chemicals near bird feeding areas or where birds are nesting.

• Design a bird-friendly landscape to provide suitable habitat for many species, and encourage neighbors to do the same. If possible, adopt a flowerbed in a local park and plant it with bird-friendly spring blooms.
• When you are out for spring walks, take along a trash bag and studiously pick up litter that can threaten birds. The example you set may inspire others to do the same, creating an even safer environment for local birds.
• Take steps to protect your bird houses from predators, including adding baffles and adjusting entrance holes so only the intended birds will be able to use them.
• Always follow proper birding ethics when birding in spring – or at any time of year – to cause as little stress as possible to the birds you’re out to see.

Spring is a great season for birding, but it can be a dangerous season for the birds. Understanding the seasonal threats birds face can help birders take steps to protect them, so both birds and birders will be able to enjoy many springs to come.