Conservation Framework

We take action across four main categories to conserve birds across the Americas. At the bottom of the pyramid, our efforts — such as building the capacity of partner organizations — benefit a large number of bird species.

Actions at the top of the pyramid benefit the rarest species, safeguarding endangered birds from extinction.

Halt Extinction

At the pinnacle, we work to prevent the extinction and promote the recovery of the hemisphere’s most endangered birds, such as the Stresemann’s Bristlefront in Brazil, Kiwikiu in Hawai’i, and Colombia’s Blue-billed Curassow.

To succeed in halting extinctions, we innovate and take targeted actions like these:

• establishing a network of nearly 90 reserves, protecting the only home of the Marvelous Spatuletail and dozens of other rare birds,
• supporting a strong, fully funded Endangered Species Act to help endangered birds in the United States recover, and
• working to end the mortality of seabirds, including Waved Albatross, Laysan Albatross, and Pink-footed Shearwater by promoting sustainable fisheries.

Conserve Habitats

We work throughout the hemisphere to improve habitat conditions for migratory and resident birds identified on the U.S. WatchList, such as the Least Tern, Black-capped Petrel, Cerulean Warbler, and Greater Sage-Grouse.

Here are some of the ways we accomplish habitat conservation across areas both small and vast:

• establishing flagship projects to solve key management problems and help landowners conserve birds, such as our work with Golden-winged Warbler,
• protecting the most irreplaceable sites for birds, like Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands that play an indispensable role in the lives of migratory birds like Sprague’s Pipit, Worthen’s Sparrow, and Long-billed Curlew, and
• maintaining or increasing federal funding for neotropical migratory bird conservation.

Eliminate Threats

We take on the biggest direct human-caused threats to birds, even when they are controversial. Threats like these result in the mortality of billions of birds each year in the United States alone:

• free-roaming cats
• window strikes
• collisions with wind turbines
• use of pesticides
• poorly managed fisheries

We aim to eliminate or significantly reduce the impacts of these threats. Actively working to educate the U.S. Congress, the White House, and government agencies, we influence policy, laws, and regulations for the benefit of birds.

We also employ scientists doing original research to help private industry innovate new products, such as bird-friendly glass and ABC BirdTape, that encourage positive actions to minimize impacts.

Build Capacity

The foundation of our work is building capacity. Informed people who love birds and take action are essential to our conservation success. So are partners empowered with the necessary resources.

We expand bird conservation efforts by empowering people, including:

• Communicating the ways people can live a bird-friendly life,
• Maintaining a list of easy ways citizens can take action on urgent threats to birds,
• Unifying conservation and bird-watching groups through the Bird Conservation Alliance, and
• Providing tools to help our partners reach sustainability goals.