In the east, many ground-dwelling ovenbirds are killed by cats. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

Europeans love their garden birds. In a 2021 survey of 26,000 Europeans, researchers concluded that the presence of a variety of neighborhood birds was just as important for people as financial security. 

I get hours of satisfaction in watching the birds come to my tiny shared yard on the Westside of Santa Barbara. Every couple of days, I spread birdseed out on the ground and watch as everything from the diminutive Lincoln’s sparrow to the colossal band-tailed pigeon comes to snack. I used to put the food in hanging feeders, but studies suggest that having birds utilize the same feeder helps spread disease. I have planted native shrubs so that the birds can feel secure and have a place to retreat. Occasionally, a Cooper’s hawk flashes into the yard and takes one of the birds. C’est la vie. It’s all part of nature.

Sometimes I’ll notice that no birds are coming to the yard. A glance out of the window will often reveal a large, apparently well-fed ginger house cat crouched underneath one of the bushes, just waiting for a snack to fly in. All it takes is for me to open the front door a crack, and the cat becomes an orange streak hurtling up and over the fence and away.

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