Cities, Towns, and Parks

Transforming our communities into places where birds flourish.

Where birds thrive, people prosper.

From urban centers to rural towns, each community can provide important habitat for birds. In turn, birds offer us a richer, more beautiful, and healthful place to live.

The Threat

Over the past century, urbanization has taken, fragmented, and transformed ecologically productive land with sterile lawns and exotic ornamental plants. We’ve introduced walls of glass, toxic pesticides, and domestic predators. The human-dominated landscape no longer supports functioning ecosystems or provides healthy places for birds.

The Solution

Audubon’s Bird-friendly Communities strives to provide food, shelter, safe passage, and places for birds to raise their young, through our Plants for Birds and Bird-friendly Buildings programs. As we work to create healthy habitats, we also work to ensure safe spaces for our feathered friends. Check out some bird-friendly yard tips here and read on to learn more.

Plants for Birds

By simply choosing native plants for our yards and public spaces, we can restore vital habitats for birds in our communities and help them adapt and survive in the face of climate change. Audubon’s Plants for Birds program is designed to enable anyone to have a positive impact by planting for birds, right where they live. 

Bring more birds to your home with native plants! Visit the native plants database to create a customized list of plants native to your area, get connected to your local Audubon and native plant nurseries, and help us get 1 million plants in the ground for birds. 

Enter your zip code here!

Bird-Friendly Community News

A small dead bird lying on its back on the pavement.
Window Strikes Are Even Deadlier for Birds Than We Thought
August 14, 2024 — A new study suggests the true avian toll of building collisions in the United States reaches well over 1 billion deaths annually.
A bird flies between skyscrapers, the fading moon overhead.
The Surprisingly Long History of the Movement to Make Buildings Safer for Birds
March 26, 2024 — Documenting the birds injured and killed by flying into buildings is difficult, emotionally draining work. One New York City Audubon volunteer looks to the past to find hope for the future.
Illustration of an adult and child smelling flowers outside next to a house.
New Laws Protect Bird-Friendly Yards From Neighborhood Rules
March 22, 2024 — A blossoming legislative trend prevents homeowners associations, which set landscaping rules for a growing number of Americans, from forbidding native plants.
Proclamations, Resolutions, and Ordinances
Audubon Florida Assembly. Photo: Luke Franke/Audubon
Proclamations, Resolutions, and Ordinances

Protecting birds and providing them with abundant habitat and safe passage is achievable with PROs – Proclamation, Resolutions and Ordinances. Connect with your local Audubon chapter, center, or sanctuary, to learn more about PROs for native plants and bird-friendly buildings or reach out to bfc@audubon.org.

Our Team

Marlene Pantin

Senior Program Manager, Plants for Birds

Connie Sanchez

Bird-friendly Buildings Program Manager

Our Work in Communities