The Challenge
 

Of the five billion pounds of pesticides that are applied worldwide each year, 20% are used in the United States—on our agricultural lands and in our homes, backyards, schools, and businesses. Pesticides, by their very nature, are poisons. Unfortunately, in addition to killing target pests, many of these toxic chemicals also pose severe risk to birds, killing them outright or causing decreased breeding success, physical malformations, or impaired ability to migrate or avoid predators.

It is now almost impossible to find any place on the planet where pesticide residues are not detectable. As a result, millions of birds die every year.

ABC Conservation Framework   Pesticides' effects on birds are broad and far reaching. Efforts to limit their impacts fall under the Eliminating Threats section of ABC's Conservation Framework

Eliminating Threats

Primary Birds Impacted
 

Birds that breed or winter in or migrate through agricultural areas such as American Crows, Dickcissels, and Bobolinks are at significant risk from direct contact with pesticides, whereas raptors such as Peregrine Falcons, eagles, owls, and hawks are at risk of accumulating high chemical concentrations in their bodies when they feed on poisoned prey. Ultimately, all birds in the U.S. are at risk of pesticide poisoning.

Solutions
 

ABC's Pesticides and Birds Program aims to reduce the exposure of wild birds to hazardous pesticides, and better define when, how, and to what degree specific pesticides pose risks to birds. Strategies include:

• Work to cancel or restrict registrations of the most dangerous pesticides
• Improve evaluation and monitoring of pesticides and their effects on birds and ensure that the knowledge gained is used to improve the regulation process
• Develop and support scientific research
• Engage the public and other non-profit organizations in the issue
• Serve as an information and advocacy hub

ABC Results
 

	Over the last decade, ABC has been at the forefront of campaigns to cancel over a dozen pesticides that are particularly harmful to birds, including fenthion, chlorfenapyr, ethyl parathion, and a suite of rodent poisons. These combined restrictions have caused bird deaths from pesticide poisonings to drop dramatically from an estimated 67 million birds per year in 1992 to perhaps fewer than 15 million per year today. Learn more about some of the pesticides that ABC has helped remove from the environment.
	In 2002, American Bird Conservancy and more than 20 partner groups formed the National Pesticide Reform Coalition (NPRC) to increase collaboration between conservation organizations on pesticide issues and their effectiveness at influencing regulatory decisions. ABC leads this group, whose members have worked together to successfully pushed for the cancellation or restriction of more than 20 pesticides in the United States.
	ABC created the Avian Incident Monitoring System (AIMS), a freely available on-line database used by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal and state regulatory agencies. AIMS is a centralized source for reliable field data on lethal and sub-lethal effects of pesticides on birds.
	As a result of ABC and NPRC members’ involvement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, progress has been made across a range of issues, including labeling accuracy (to better protect wildlife in different areas), stricter spray drift regulations, and volatilization restrictions.
	Pressure on the EPA by ABC and other NPRC members resulted in the creation of a new public process for the registration of new pesticides where before there had been no opportunity for input on bird and wildlife issues from the conservation community.
	International efforts by ABC resulted in the banning of the pesticide monocrotophos in Argentina, which had been killing significant numbers of Swainson’s Hawks. ABC is now pursuing a similar ban in Bolivia to protect Bobolinks, and has achieved a provisional agreement from the Bolivian government to remove this toxic chemical.

What Next?
 

	ABC is anticipating the final cancelation of the deadly pesticide carbofuran. Thanks to more than seven years of steady pressure, scientific arguments, and support of EPA decisions by ABC and its partners, only one final court challenge stands in the way of a huge victory for birds. This pesticide is one of the most harmful to wildlife ever used on U.S. soil.
	Continue to block or restrict EPA’s registration of pesticides scientifically documented as posing unreasonable risks to birds and the environment.
	Push EPA to ban the import of crops containing residues of pesticides that are banned or restricted for use in the United States, but are commonly used on crops throughout Latin America, where many U.S. migratory birds spend the winter.
	Improve pesticide incident field data available to regulatory agencies, industry, conservation groups, and the public documenting toxicity levels of dangerous pesticides.

Buy organic food Avoid using pesticides in and around your home (e.g., rat poison) Prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your backyard Report pesticide poisoning incidents (live birds and dead birds) For more information, read What You Can Do to Minimize the Threat to Birds from Pesticides