How Pesticides Affect Birds

Although birds may seem unimportant to humans, their role in our everyday life is significant and may soon be gone. Due to the silent bird killer, known as pesticides, the impact of toxins has been significantly been more prominent than before. For example, in France, 1/3 of the population of birds has decreased dramatically because of toxins from pesticides. North American bird populations have spiraled down by 30%, according to American Bird Conservation, because of climate change, poor pesticide use, and natural predators. Although their role may not seem important, they play the role of dispensers for plants, eat dead animals and protect our drinking water. They help protect our water from erosion and some even eat the roadkill we cause.

If your pesticides have carbofuran, fenthion, chlorfenapyr, or/and ethyl parathion, you should switch to a pesticide such as Camicide. Once bird populations are gone, they are almost impossible to recover as some are endemic species, which means they’re native to a certain region and can only survive in certain conditions. The power of one person using pesticides with such harmful toxins is very effective. As the United States uses more than 1 billion pounds of pesticide each year, the whole world uses over 5.6 billion pounds per year. As laws are being put in place, it is important to take these little steps as birds can protect gardens and help pollinate different plants. Some herbicides have even been linked to being found in U.S. drinking water, the more precautions we take, the better for us (humans) and the bird populations as their food sources come in contact with pesticides and herbicides. More than 670 million birds die (almost 10%) because of pesticides and one person being cautious of what they use can start a chain reaction.  If a bird lands in your area, you may be elongating a bird’s lifespan by using bird-safe pesticides. 

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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