Conservationists hope growing interest in birding will lead to increased protections

David Bradley loves birds and enjoys spending time alone with them in nature, but the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have reduced his chances to sit in solitude with the animals.

"I go out and the parking lot is full of people with binoculars," said the B.C. director for Birds Canada, which advocates for the conservation of bird species. "You know, it didn't always used to be that way."

What Bradley is talking about is one of the unintended benefits of the pandemic — people who are connecting more with nature, such as observing bird species in their region, as a way to stay safe from infection and do something worthwhile.

"It's fantastic," said Bradley, who grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. He was so astounded with the appearance and behaviour of bird species there, that he committed as a teenager to doing whatever he could to protect them.

Bradley moved to Canada in 1997 when he was 15. For the past 10 years, he has worked for Birds Canada. The charity is based in Port Rowan, Ont., but has a B.C. office in Delta.

Birds are a key marker of ecosystem health for the role they play in pollinating plants, dispersing seeds and eating insects.

Bradley, along with other conservation organizations, is highlighting things citizens can do to help bird species in Canada, which have seen a vast reduction over the past 50 years due to habitat loss and things like pollution.

"We lose the ecosystem services that they provide. That's a very detrimental thing to us, so that is a big wake up call," said Bradley.

Saturday was the annual World Migratory Bird Day. Since 2006, it has tried to bring attention to the need to conserve habitats for birds, some of which travel thousands of kilometres annually across the globe.

This year, the occasion focused on how artificial light, such as that from cities, can disorient birds when they fly at night. It can lead to collisions with buildings, disrupt animals' internal clocks, and interfere with their ability to undertake long-distance migrations.

"There are millions of birds every year that die on these migrations because of collisions with buildings," said Jensen Edwards, a spokesperson for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).

The NCC is the largest non-profit land conservation organization in the country, with multiple offices in B.C.

Edwards said that while many people have discovered ways to connect with nature as a meaningful pastime over the course of the pandemic, they've also thrown their support behind organizations like the NCC as a way to do something to combat climate change.

In the last three years, Edwards said the NCC has protected areas of land across the country that together would be twice the size of the province of Prince Edward Island — more than 10,000 square kilometres.

The NCC has come a long way since 1974 when it completed its first-ever project in B.C., the Mud Bay Conservation Area in Surrey.

It is now an important habitat for numerous species of migratory waterbirds and shorebirds.

What you can do to help birds

While Edwards appreciates increased support for projects that NCC and other like organizations are doing, he recognizes that not everyone has land or money to donate.

Both he and Bradley want to encourage residents to find ways, 'small acts' as the NCC calls them, to help birds around their own homes such as keeping cats indoors, planting native plants in gardens or in pots on balconies and putting markers on windows to reduce bird collisions.

"Together by doing these things, these small acts of conservation we can actually have an impact," said Edwards. "But it does take growing momentum to get there."