Wisconsin’s Vanishing Songbirds

Help keep our feeders, fields, and forests from going silent

Connecticut warbler. Jeremy Meyer

Can you imagine our world without songbirds?

North America has lost 30% of its birds since 1970. Warblers, finches and sparrows are among the hardest hit. Wisconsin is suffering these losses too and they’re continuing.

Our pleasure in seeing and hearing a variety of songbirds will go away if we don’t act now. We’ll lose a lot more, too.

  • Birds disperse seeds, pollinate plants, and help reduce crop and forest pests

  • Birds are “canaries in the coal mine,” alerting us to unhealthy conditions for people & wildlife

Take action at home to help birds

A Northern Parula perches on a pussy willow branch

Add plants for birds

A tree is reflected in a sliding glass door

Reduce window threats

Close up of freshly picked coffee beans

Buy coffee grown better for birds

Latest News

Bird News
Bird-safe window treatments installed at Henry Vilas Zoo’s iconic carousel building

Migrating birds will notice the new bird-safe glass on Henry Vilas Zoo’s iconic carousel building even if the kids don’t as they whirl by on wooden camels, penguins and zebras.

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Songbird Fruit joins the conservation chorus

Who says songbird conservation can't be delicious? Birdwatcher Vince Holinka raises awareness and funds for SOS Save Our Songbirds at festivals featuring his Songbird Fruit stand.

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SOS, Wild Ones Madison and Johnson’s Nursery team up for native plant sale fundraiser

SOS Save Our Songbirds is partnering with Wild Ones Madison and Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls to sponsor an online native plant sale fundraiser running Aug. 1-Sept. 6 with plant pick up Sept. 13 in Madison. The nursery will donate 15% of all sales back to Wild Ones Madison.

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Eastern Bluebirds sing a happier tune in Wisconsin

Eastern Bluebirds are singing a happier tune in Wisconsin thanks to efforts of the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin and scores of other organizations and individuals.

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  • “I believe in the power of the small. I tell my students, you don't have to impact hundreds or thousands of people. Let's start with seven.”

    Trish O’Kane, “accidental ornithologist,” author of Birding to Change the World, and a senior lecturer at the University of Vermont

  • “Increasing the percentage of native plants in suburbia is a grassroots solution to the extinction crisis. To succeed, we do not need to invoke governmental action; we do not need to purchase large tracts of pristine habitat that no longer exist… We can each make a measurable difference almost immediately by planting a native nearby.”

    Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home and founder of Homegrown National Park

  • “So much of what we think about in environmentalism is finger-wagging and gloom-and-doom, but when you look at a lot of those examples where people are taking things into their hands, they’re joyful. That’s healing not only for land but for our culture as well — it feels good.”

    Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

  • “Another positive thing about working to address bird-window collisions at home is you don’t need permission from anyone. It’s your house, it’s your window. It’s also empowering. There’s not a lot of conservation issues where you can say, 'I want to do something' and the next day actually do the thing you’re talking about.”

    Bryan Lenz, Glass Collision Program Manager for American Bird Conservancy