People Improving the Lives of Birds

Over the years, BirdNote has paid tribute to people who improve the lives of birds. We find inspiration in the efforts of stewards such as Jim Brown, who’s preserving important habitat for birds such as this Lewis's Woodpecker, along the Clark Fork River in Montana. In downtown Chicago, Annette Prince and her team of volunteers rescue and rehabilitate birds that survive window-strikes. And near San Francisco, Tom Rusert provides opportunities for children to count birds with their families. He’s laying the groundwork for bird conservation in the future.

BirdNote applauds the efforts of all of these people to help #BringBirdsBack.

You can help birds, too. Learn more at https://www.3billionbirds.org.

Special thanks to the Horizons Foundation for supporting BirdNote's participation in the #BringBirdsBack campaign.

BirdNote^®

People Improving the Lives of Birds

By Chris Peterson

This is BirdNote.

[Call of Lewis’s Woodpecker + the call of Willow Flycatcher as ambient]

Over the years, BirdNote has paid tribute to people who improve the lives of birds -- people like Jim Brown – who’s preserving important bird habitat along 25 miles of the Clark Fork River in Montana. His strategy for success?

“Conservation is mainly about creating relationships and building trust. Most landowners are quite interested to know what birds occur on their land. It’s easy to develop a conversation if you begin with the birds and their habitat and what’s there.” (1)

In downtown Chicago, Annette Prince and her team of volunteers find and rehabilitate birds that survive crashing into windows. Huge numbers of birds strike windows, especially during migration. What keeps Annette going day after day?

“These tiny birds are making these epic journeys of hundreds or thousands of miles, and I see them beat all these odds of weather and endurance and distance that they travel…It’s heart-breaking to see them hurt or killed. (2) I think they deserve a better fate. (3)”

Near San Francisco, Tom Rusert provides opportunities for children to count birds with their family. He’s laying the groundwork for conservation in the future. Here’s Tom:

“…when the kids and their parents share the excitement of being outdoors…it changes the ‘heartbeat’ of a family.” (4)

For BirdNote, I'm Mary McCann.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Call of Lewis’s Woodpecker [40674] recorded by G.A. Keller; drumming of Red-naped Sapsucker [63055] by D. Herr; song of Willow Flycatcher [129025] M.J. Anderson; Black-capped Chickadee recorded by S.R. Pantle.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org April 2015/2020 Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# help-03-2015-04-18 help-03

(1) https://birdnote.org/show/trust-and-partnerships-help-birds-montana
(2) & (3) https://birdnote.org/show/chicago-volunteers-rescue-birds
(4) https://birdnote.org/show/christmas-bird-count-kids-tom-rusert