Thursday, 24 September 2026
Part 3 of Bird Flu and your Local Birds: A short, practical series for people who love the birds around them
H5 is far from the only thing our birds are up against – on any given day they’re already dealing with habitat loss, cats, windows, poisons and more. This piece is about the longer game: easing those other pressures so your local birds are stronger and better able to endure.
It works at the level of the whole population. When the other pressures ease, numbers stay up and breeding stays strong – so once the virus has moved through, the species recovers faster and in better shape.
Without that depth, a sharp drop can squeeze a population through what’s called a “genetic bottleneck”: too few birds left for it to recover at all, and the road to local extinction. We can’t vaccinate the birds in our suburbs, but we can lift some of the weight off them – so a healthy population has the room to take a hit and come back.
The most valuable thing you can do is to create habitat. A garden with the right plants offers birds what a feeder never could: natural food year-round, shelter, freedom of movement across the landscape, and the room to spread out instead of bunching together.
Layers do the heavy lifting, so a mix of groundcovers, shrubs and trees (if you have the space) will support our birds and a functioning ecosystem in general. Take any opportunity you can to put a plant in the ground (or in a pot!).
Check out your council or community nursery for locally native plants and particularly select dense or prickly shrubs if you can – those give smaller birds somewhere safe to shelter. If you’d like help with how to create a bird-friendly garden, our free online Habitat Gardening for Birds course is available.
Keeping cats indoors or safely contained is one of the biggest single things you can do for local birds (and keeps the cats safe from H5 bird flu as well).
A few marks or decals on your windows that are spaced out in 5cm x 10cm grids cut down the risk of glass strike, and swapping second-generation rat baits for snap traps or safer options keeps poison away from owls and other raptors.
Every pressure you remove leaves our bird populations a little better able to withstand H5.
Tawny Frogmouths by Phillip Green.
The same is true beyond the back fence. The waterbirds and shorebirds of our parks, wetlands and beaches are among the most vulnerable to H5.
A flock that’s repeatedly put to flight by an unleashed dog or someone walking straight through the flock as they rest or feed burns energy they can’t easily spare, and a tired, underfed bird has less in reserve for everything. So, keep dogs on the lead and give flocks a wide berth.
Don’t forget to take your rubbish home, fishing line and hooks especially, which injure and entangle waterbirds, and keep clear of fenced-off nesting areas.
And if you want to do more, joining a survey like Birds in Backyards, the Beach Nesting Birds program, or the upcoming Aussie Bird Count. These survey programs turn your everyday watching into useful data.
Likewise, speaking up locally for the birds in your local patch, whether that is through advocating to protect a wetland, bushland patch, or even just a particular hollow-bearing tree, is vitally important.
Then there’s the pressure behind all the others: the loss of habitat itself. That’s the hardest one to fix from a single backyard, and it’s where acting together counts most. The tree, the wetland, the patch of bush your local birds depend on are usually protected, or lost, through council and planning decisions, so your voice matters here as much as your garden does.
Make a submission when a site is under threat, back a local campaign, join a “friends of” group or a BirdLife campaign, and speak up for that species, site or even single tree.
On our own we can lift the smaller pressures; together we can defend the habitat that gives birds the depth to withstand H5 in the first place.
None of this is easy to watch. If it’s left you sad or unsettled, you’re far from alone, and the feeling even has a name: ecological grief, the sorrow we feel at the loss of places, species and wildlife we care about. It’s real, it’s shared, and it’s nothing to apologise for.
It’s important to talk about it and share with others who may be experiencing similar feelings. Read through BirdLife Australia’s wellness guide for volunteers and check out these links below for more information
Remember: doing something, even something small, usually helps more than looking away. So, keep planting, keep watching and counting, and keep taking pleasure in the birds around you. It’s good for them, and good for you too.
Learn how you can support native Aussie birds by creating a habitat garden at home.
We must urge the Australian Government to invest $200 million in wildlife preparedness.
Conservation starts in your backyard. The plants that we choose for our gardens can provide most, sometimes even all, of the food, shelter and nesting resources that urban birds require. So when you are deliberating over which plants to add your garden, it’s useful to consider the following.
reCaptcha is required*
I consent to receiving marketing emails from BirdLife Australia, including news, events, volunteer opportunities and special offers. My information will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
Thank you for subscribing to BirdLife Australia!
Please check your email for a confirmation.
