Welcome To Bird City Wisconsin
"Making our communities healthy for birds...and people"

International Migratory Bird Day 2012

International Migratory Bird Day will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2012. Created in 1993, the event is now hosted at over 520 sites throughout the Western Hemisphere -- including dozens in Wisconsin -- reaching hundreds of thousands of youth and adults. As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, the annual bird conservation theme will focus on 20 ways people may help preserve birds every day. http://birdday.org/

The theme is highlighted in the 2012 art created by Rafael Lopez. The lively piece reflects the joy, curiosity, and beauty of birds, while sharing the importance of community in bird conservation. Check out the final artwork and a very cool video of the actual t-shirt screen printing

20 WAYS YOU CAN HELP BIRD CONSERVATION!
It's easy to get involved in bird conservation, and like anything, some of your most helpful actions begin at home. In celebration of International Migratory Bird Day's 20th Anniversary, here are 20 issues and simple solutions. Imagine how many birds you can help finish their migratory journey, have a successful nesting season, raise young, survive the winter, if you just…
1. Prevent Bird Collisions with Your Windows
2. Protect Birds From Pets
3. Clean Your Bird Feeders
4. Don’t Buy Illegally-Caged Birds
5. Use Cloth Grocery Bags and Reusable Bottles
6. Recycle
7. Restore Natural Habitat in Your Community
8. Keep Your Distance
9. Leave Fledglings Where You Find Them
10. Slow Down When Driving
11. Buy Bird Friendly Products
12. Plant Native
13. Teach Others About Birds
14. Get Outdoors and Enjoy Nature
15. Take a Friend Bird Watching
16. Support Conservation
17. Be a Citizen Scientist
18. Reduce Energy Use
19. Avoid Chemicals
20. Learn the Hunting Laws

Wisconsin now has 51 'Bird Cities'
Bayside is the first of 10 "Sustained Flight" communities to update its dramatic Bird City Wisconsin street signs marking two years of recognition.

12 more communities earn recognition; all 15 inaugural communities renew participation
In awarding recognition to 12 additional communities on March 22, Bird City Wisconsin has topped the 50 mark.

That's the number of cities, villages, towns and counties that this collaborative program for urban bird conservation has honored for their highly public commitment to working with their residents to create a better place for people, birds and other wildlife.

The Village of Fontana is now flying both its Tree City USA and Bird City Wisconsin flags.
 Click photo to enlarge.

Simultaneously, the two-year-old program announced that all 15 of its inaugural communities, recognized in December 2010, had successfully renewed their recognition for 2012.

“With this 50th Bird City recognition we have surpassed our goals for growth and already are working to expand to another 30 cities," said Carl Schwartz, Bird City Wisconsin coordinator. ”Over and over again, it's been demonstrated that a place that is a haven for birds and is doing good things to benefit them is a better place in which to live and work."

Statewide focus on Chimney Swifts - The Wisconsin Chimney Swift Working Group has held its first meeting, with 14 members from organizations around the state, including Bird City Wisconsin. The Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory will be coordinating efforts to help stabilize the population of this small insect-eating migratory bird that often nests in our homes, schools or other nearby buildings. Projects (including swift nesting towers and "swift sits") will be announced in the year ahead. As part of Beaver Dam's "Birds in the City" celebration to mark IMBD, the Senior Center woodshop constructed and erected this Chimney Swift tower to provide additional nesting habitat. We have heard of similar efforts in Green Bay, Stevens Point and River Falls -- all Bird City communities. If your community is doing something similar or hosts a Swift Night Out event,  let us know so we can help promote it. Email information to wpmueller1947@gmail.com

The newest Bird City communities range widely and include the cities of Bayfield, Fond du Lac, Horicon, Oconomowoc, Oconto and Wausau; the villages of Plover, Fox Point and Whitefish Bay, and Marquette County. Also recognized was the community of "Sauk Prairie," with Sauk City and Prairie du Sac submitting a successful joint application. Each will be presented with special Bird City Wisconsin flags, plaques and street signs at ceremonies to honor their conservation achievements.

 The renewal process also saw 5 of the 15 original communities win "High Flyer" honors for meeting a more extensive set of conservation criteria. They include the cities of Stevens Point, Green Bay, Muskego, Oshkosh and Ozaukee County. The remaining 10 received the "Sustained Flight" award for their renewed commitment ; they include the cities of Mequon, New London, Lake Geneva, Brookfield and River Falls; the villages of Bayside, Chenequa, Hales Corners and Williams Bay, and the Town of Manitowish Waters.

Modeled on the "Tree City USA" program, Bird City established 22 criteria across five categories, including habitat creation and protection, community forest management, limiting hazards, public education, and recognizing International Migratory Bird Day. If a community meets at least seven criteria, it becomes an official "Bird City."

-- To see our March 22 news release and for more details on our program, click here.

-- For a look at what each community is doing to benefit birds, click here

-- Bird City will accept a new round of applications through July 1. For more details and to see the Basic Application, click here

-- Bird City also has established procedures for communities to renew their recognition and/or upgrade to "High Flyer" status. To see Online Renewal Applications: Word | PDF

Bird City uses this web site to guide birding enthusiasts, natural landscapers, foresters, parks directors, city planners and others through the process. The project coordinator urges interested residents to contact local officials to encourage them to seek Bird City recognition and then work with them to make it happen. Take advantage of the criteria you already meet and build your application around those.

Questions? Contact BCW Coordinator Carl Schwartz at 414-416-3272 or cschwartz3@wi.rr.com
To see just how each of our communities achieved certification as a "Bird City," click here to view their conservation achievements and the criteria they met.

Prevent birds from striking your windows

As many as one billion birds die each year by flying into window glass because they simply cannot see it. An amazing new product called BirdTape helps the birds to see the window while still allowing you to look out from the inside. The price for this tape ranges from $10.95 to $14.95 per roll; a small price to pay to save the lives of the birds in your neighborhood. You can find this life-saving tape through the American Bird Conservancy at abcbirdtape.org. They provide you with instructions and application patterns so you can get the best results from the tape. For an overview on Birds and Collisions, go to Preventing Window Strikes and Birds and Collisions.
Studies Show Outdoor Cats Are Popular Prey for Coyotes

Bird City Wisconsin had many good reasons for making this one of its key criteria for recognition: "The community has an educational program in place to control free-roaming cats and/or actively publicizes the American Bird Conservancy “Cats Indoors!” program."  Studies in Wisconsin and elsewhere indicate that free-ranging domestic cats kill millions of birds annually in Wisconsin. Now comes another study showing why cat owners have a vested interest in keeping their cats indoors. A new sudy found that of the 45 instances where coyotes were observed feeding, 42% of the meals were cats.

Click here to read more

Giving Birds What They Need, Where They Need It

Douglas W. Tallamy, author of "Bringing Nature Home - How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants,"  has a message that was fundamental to the creation of Bird City Wisconsin.  In an article prepared for Bird City, Dr. Tallamy writes:

90% of the insects that eat plants (this is the caterpillar stage of the Polyphemus moth) are only able to eat the plants for which they have specialized adaptations.
Birds, such as this Common Yellowthroat, provide critical insect control, because they eat them every single day.

"There is nothing inevitable about the demise of our birds. Their decline is not mysterious.... We know exactly why there are fewer birds each year. Our birds are in trouble because we have not shared our human-dominated spaces with them:  the places in which we live, work, and farm.... What we haven’t thought much about was our ever-expanding human footprint.  Suddenly, we are living, working, farming and mining just about everywhere.... Birds are superb indicator species of ecosystem health. Most are predators, and some are top predators that cannot exist unless a complex food web that creates their food also exists.... If we have disrupted ecosystem function to the point where our birds disappear, we have also threatened our own life support systems."

Too see how you can be part of the solution, read Dr. Tallamy's entire report in the "Best Practices" section of our site (click here).

Mobilizing a coalition

Bird City Wisconsin seeks to mobilize a statewide coalition of citizens and public officials who already know that birds are more than beautiful -- they are significant.

Wisconsin communities that come together to help protect birds – choosing from an array of different bird conservation activities – can receive designation and public recognition as a Bird City Wisconsin.

If you’re one of the 60% percent of Americans who lives in an urban neighborhood, enjoying nature often means watching birds. Urban dwellers may frequently encounter Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, and Mourning Doves, but if they look up in the right places they can also spot Common Nighthawks circling above buildings, Red-tailed Hawks hunting from treetops, and Blue Jays sounding the alarm.

A coalition led by the Milwaukee Audubon Society, the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology wants to ensure that Wisconsin’s city folk maintain healthy populations of birds and grow an appreciation for them.

With funding from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and TogetherGreen, an alliance between the National Audubon Society and Toyota, the program will address an increasing problem: the decline of urban bird populations. Chimney Swift populations in Wisconsin, for example, have declined by more than 2% annually for the last 28 years, while the Purple Martin – which nests in colonial boxes often near water – is declining at three times that rate.

Bird City stresses the economic incentive for communities to practice conservation. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than half of all U.S. adults hunt, fish, bird watch or photograph wildlife, spending a total of $59.5 billion annually.

Birds also are unheralded assistants to backyard gardeners, flower fanciers, private and municipal landscapers, farmers and foresters. Without birds, communities would have to spend far more money keeping natural systems in balance. Insect-eating birds reduce the need for chemical pest control. Birds also are voracious eaters of weed seeds and rodents.

Bird City Wisconsin showcases its recognition with entryway street signs, a flag and a plaque. It makes a strong contribution to community pride and presents the kind of image that most citizens want to have for the place they live, vacation or conduct their business. Bird City trumpets a community's current conservation successes while promoting strategies for coordinated, far-reaching, bird-centered conservation activities.

Video/slide show shows how you can be a Bird City

In a half-hour webinar that combines live video with a Powerpoint slide show, Bird City coordinator Carl Schwartz presents an overview of the program, reports on its early successes and enlists the help of birders, garden clubs, civic groups and other organizations looking for a cause to rally around to celebrate Earth Day or International Migratory Bird Day.  (Click logo below to link)

 Bird City Wisconsin - 1111 E. Brown Deer Road - Bayside, WI 53217 - Phone (414) 416-3272 - Email Us