Elsie stood on my grandmother’s front porch one day looking not the least bit guilty. This was Gramma’s beloved “house” cat, and dangling from its mouth was a very dead purple finch. From that day on, the backyard was quiet. No more beautiful complex song of the purple finch, and the nest he’d been working on gradually disintegrated and was gone.

Unfortunately this is an increasingly common story. It’s not easy being a native American bird these days. Particularly if you’re an eastern meadowlark, a common grackle, a whip-poor-will, or a common tern. These are part of National Audubon Society’s list of the “Top 20 Common Birds in Decline.” (see Audubon.org)

As agriculture has taken over prairie/ meadow habitats, urban sprawl has eaten up forests, wetlands, and streams, and pesticides have fouled food chains, bird populations have taken a hit, but these may not even be the biggest problems for some species.

My grandmother’s cat was part of a huge and disturbing trend that’s been growing, largely unnoticed, for decades and is only recently being quantified. Most native bird species are in decline, for a variety of reasons, all of which can be traced to impacts of us humans. Cats are not only overlooked as a serious problem, but are said to be simply following their instincts and birds “just need to adapt…”

Turns out, house cats that are allowed outdoors, and feral cats, kill billions of birds annually, according to Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C. He led the team that performed a recent analysis. To figure out how much wildlife cats catch, they combed the scientific literature for the best assessments of how many cats live in the United States and of what cats in similar climates hunt. Roughly 114 million cats live in the contiguous United States, 84 million of which are “house cats.” Of the house cats, 40 to 70 percent do some roaming (hunting) outside.

The math is astonishing. It’s now estimated that domestic cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds each year… in the U.S. alone. And this is a growing dilemma. It’s particularly problematic for birds that nest on the ground. Birds such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, waterthrush, and lark sparrows.

But tree nesting birds are also at great risk from cats. April is a month when fledgling birds begin to venture forth from the nest to try out their wings. I once had a young chickadee careen into my chest, falling into my hand… only to shake itself off, take off, and careen back toward the nest from which it had ventured. This youngster would have been easy prey. Had I been an uncontrolled wandering cat… there would have instantly been one less chickadee consuming insects in Peoria’s urban forest.

A lady once explained to me that two robins had been dive bombing her pet cat in the backyard, but her cat showed those birds… it caught and killed one of them. I explained to her that those were simply a mated pair of robins trying to distract her feisty feline from finding and feeding on their fledglings. Unfortunately her cat, having killed one of the parents, left a single adult bird to raise and protect the clutch. Clearly the odds are that cat had caused the deaths of more than just a single robin. She became frustrated because I seemed to side with the birds.

I once saw a cat catch a robin in its mouth. The robin had been trying to protect its young. I released my dog from her leash and sent her to investigate. The cat leaped into the cover of nearby shrubbery with its captive robin. My dog followed the cat into the shrub. The robin burst out the top of the foliage and perched in a nearby tree, shaking itself off, seemingly no worse for wear. My dog, tail wagging, emerged without the cat she had only tried to befriend, and returned to her leash. The cat slunk around the nearby house having lost its bird. Obviously, friendly protective dogs are by no means a practical solution.

Exactly what can be done to help neighborhood birds? This problem is so large there is no one solution. Those of us who have pet cats need to keep them under control as my mother did with our pet cats, and as we do with our dogs. I’ve approached neighbors and politely asked that they control their cats so they stop stalking my bird feeder and yard. The importance of this needs to be more known. Perhaps if cat owners knew how harmful cats are to native birds, they’d be more likely to control theirs, and also have them neutered.

Another thing that can be done for birds and other native animals is home habitat enhancement. This consists of providing food, clean water, shelter, and space. In our yard we use a bird bath to provide water, a bird feeding station as well as plantings for food. Annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees provide interesting and layered cover. Our yard is almost a half acre, and is developing into a fine and beautiful habitat.

Native plants are a key to habitat enhancement simply because they evolved along with native birds, insects, spiders, mammals, reptiles… and so on. This stimulates diversity, which buffers against pest outbreaks. Having plants of various heights provides more cover where critters can shelter from the weather, hide, and nest.

It’s a perfect time to plan and plant in your garden. Habitat development provides color, texture, screening, composition and balance and will continue to enhance your property. A bird feeding station (and water) visible from the house can be enjoyed year round. With luck, you may be treated to some of spring’s most beautiful songs reverberating throughout your home environment.

For more information call Luthy Botanical Garden at 686-3362, or Forest Park Nature Center at 686-3360. Also you could Google “garden for wildlife,” or “discouraging cats from your garden.”