If You Hate Birds, Use Pesticides

If your heart hardens at the sound of a songbird, if the bright chatter of finches and the flash of a chickadee’s wing stirs nothing in you—then by all means, use pesticides. Spray your lawn with chemical convenience, drench your flower beds in neonics, and rest easy knowing that your garden is silent not because it’s peaceful, but because it’s empty.

Of course, I’m being facetious. I assume that, like me, you probably like birds. You might even love them. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, nearly 47 million Americans identify as bird watchers. We buy seed, install feeders, and take joy in identifying species on our morning walks. But if our yards are also places where we use pesticides—to kill insects, to green our lawns, to grow unblemished roses—then we are unknowingly poisoning the very creatures we claim to love.

A 2019 study published in Science revealed a staggering truth: North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970—a nearly 30% decline in total bird populations. Not rare, exotic birds. Not rainforest species. We're talking about sparrows, swallows, blackbirds—common backyard birds. The decline isn’t just sad—it’s systemic. And one of the top drivers? Widespread pesticide use.

The science is clear: birds don’t just eat seeds. They feed their young insects. Lots of them. During nesting season, a single chickadee family may consume 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars. When we spray our yards to kill those “pests,” we’re wiping out the baby food of the bird world.

More troubling still are neonicotinoids—a class of insecticides often used in garden centers, tree injections, and turf applications. Neonics don’t just kill insects; they persist in plant tissue, pollen, and water. Studies have shown that a single neonic-treated seed is enough to kill a songbird. Others die more slowly—through tremors, disorientation, or loss of appetite, sometimes starving before they find their way south.

You may never see it happen. The birds don’t fall from the sky into your flower beds. They simply stop showing up.

And it’s not just birds. Insects—the foundation of the food web—are vanishing too. The so-called "Insect Apocalypse" is already underway. According to a 2020 global review, over 40% of insect species are declining, and one-third are endangered. Fewer insects mean fewer birds. Fewer birds mean fewer seeds scattered, fewer pests controlled, fewer wildflowers pollinated. In nature, there is no such thing as collateral damage—only cascading consequences.

So what’s the alternative? Stop spraying. Start planting. Embrace the leaf holes, the aphids, the slow dance of predator and prey. Garden with purpose. Choose native plants, mulch with compost, and welcome back the bugs. Because where there are insects, there are birds. And where there are birds, there is life.

You don’t have to be a biologist to save the world—just a gardener with a conscience.

pavo muticus