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Your New Jersey Community Can Help Migratory Birds
New Jersey’s Avian Heritage
The Garden State is rich with bird life! New Jersey may be small, but its climate and geography provide a great diversity of bird habitats across rugged ridges, vast marshes, sandy beaches, pine barrens, protected bays, rich lowlands, grassy meadows, and winding rivers. Centrally located at a crossroads of bird migration routes, New Jersey’s diverse habitats support over 450 bird species including over 200 that breed here – from songbirds to shorebirds, woodpeckers to waterbirds, hummingbirds to hawks. This hub of bird activity does not go unnoticed. About 1.9 million residents and visitors spent $1.2 billion watching New Jersey’s wildlife in 2001.
Birds in danger
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classifies about a quarter of the Nation’s 836 species of migratory birds as endangered, threatened, or “of conservation concern.” Habitat loss and degradation are the primary threats, but other sources of human-caused mortality exacerbate declining bird populations. Collision and electrocution at man-made structures, poisoning from environmental contaminants, and predation from feral and outdoor cats collectively kill many millions of birds each year.
Ways You Can Help
The good news is that your community can help protect migratory birds for the continued enjoyment of residents and visitors alike. The actions listed below can be taken by county and municipal officials, environmental commissions, nature centers, schools, garden clubs, and individual land owners. See what you can do to protect New Jersey’s amazing bird life!
- Become familiar with bird conservation plans such as the Partners in Flight, Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, North American Bird Conservation Initiative, Important Bird Areas, and New Jersey Wildlife Action Plan.
- Identify and pursue opportunities to protect, manage, and restore bird habitats and to
implement provisions of the bird conservation plans listed above. Technical and material
assistance may be available through federal and State programs.
- Work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Jersey Office of Smart
Growth, Green Acres Program, and Division of Land Use Regulation to protect important
bird habitats. Support acquisition of the most sensitive areas, and consider supplementing
State land-use regulations with complementary ordinances and zoning.
- Join other municipalities, the Service, the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Coastal Beach Management Initiative to protect birds that depend on sandy beach habitats.
- Enforce and strengthen dog leash laws in sensitive wildlife habitats, support the Cats
Indoors campaign, and consider an ordinance to prohibit free-roaming cats.
- Regulate the construction of structures that pose a potential electrocution or collision hazard
to migratory birds. See the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's bird mortality fact sheet for an overview.
- For new or replacement power lines, require Avian Protection Plans and consistency with the Suggested Practices for Avian Protection on Power Lines.
- For proposed communication towers, require consistency with the Service’s tower siting guidelines, and coordinate with the New Jersey Field Office on structures over 200 feet tall.
- For proposed wind turbines, require consistency with Service's wind turbine interim guidance and coordinate with the New Jersey Field Office during project review.
- For glass windows in existing buildings and proposed buildings two stories or less, encourage the adoption of practices to minimize bird collisions such as glass coverings and careful landscaping. For proposed buildings three stories or taller, coordinate with the Service during project review and require practices such as turning off indoor lights, minimizing and down-shielding outdoor lights, and using bird-friendly glass or glass coverings as recommended by the Fatal Light Awareness Program.
- Promote establishment of bird habitats in backyards, corporate parks, and golf courses,
emphasizing native vegetation.
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serivice: Bird Feeding
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serivice: Backyard Habitat Plants
Natural Resource Conservation Service: Backyard Habitat
National Wildlife Federation: Backyard Habitat
New Jersey Audubon Society: Backyard Habitat
Wildlife Habitat Council (corporate parks)
Audubon International (golf courses)
Native Plant Society of New Jersey
- Limit the use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Promote proper disposal of household chemicals and hazardous waste. See the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Information.
- Promote participation in citizen science (e.g., volunteer monitoring) for birds, such as Breeding Bird Surveys, Christmas Bird Counts, Project Feeder Watch, the New Jersey Wildlife Conservation Corps, and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation.
- Promote the purchase of Duck Stamps. Proceeds support the expansion of National Wildlife Refuges, including the five refuges in New Jersey.
- Promote shade-grown coffee. Traditional coffee plantations, where coffee shrubs are grown under a canopy of diverse tropical trees, harbor an abundance of birds, including migrant songbirds that breed in New Jersey.
- Promote passive recreation and ecotourism, including bird watching. Celebrate
International Migratory Bird Day.
Working together, New Jersey’s communities can make a difference for migratory birds!
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Contact Us Page of the New Jersey Field Office
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
New Jersey Field Office
927 North Main Street
Heritage Square, Building D
Pleasantville, New Jersey 08232
