AURA IB Box 3 - 73
Library Binding ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728431778 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728431772
QL 676 .H57 2022 AURA

children's nonfiction (4th-7th grade)

having just finished a book about the decline in insect populations, I could hazard a guess as to why the birds would also be in trouble, but in short:
* window strikes are a problem (particularly in tall buildings along migration routes but family homes can be dangerous for birds too--these are largely preventable but take some $ and urban policy changes to fix);
* pesticides and chemical pollution (as applied to agricultural seed that they eat and in the resulting scarcer insect food supply that results, as well as in the pollution run off that ends up in the water)--organic farming practices are recommended here;
* climate change (affecting the number of insects to eat but also ocean acidification, other foodsources that birds get from the ocean and disruption of the food chain);
* outdoor pet cats and feral cats (technically would qualify to be an "invasive species" as there are many more of them than there would be in a natural ecosystem, and they kill a LOT of animals)--keeping cats fixed/neutered and indoors is preferable but a noisy bell collar or brightly colored vest can help prevent cats from successfully stalking neighborhood birds;
* disappearing habitat--not as many bird-friendly trees (try to buy shade-grown coffee and organics when possible and plant native trees and plants to support more caterpillars and insect food for the birds to feed their chicks).

It was somewhat brief on the benefits of birds (other than that people like to watch them, and that unnamed animals might depend on them for food--hawks I'm guessing and maybe some of the few remaining wildcats?) and I thought it could have mentioned bird poop as a natural fertilizer (probably?) but I think the author just didn't want to mention anything deemed "unpleasant" or that would potentially offend parents (though the description of the thousands of dead and maimed birds from skyscraper window strikes, I would argue, is certainly unpleasant). But expounding a little more on these points, as well as how they help balance the insect populations, would round out that section better. ( )