Do outdoor cats really kill 3 billion birds a year?
When people pushback on our claims that 3 billion birds are killed by outdoor cats in the US each year, we gently point them to the US Fish and Wildlife Service which estimates between 1,400,000,000 and 3,700,000,000 bird deaths from cats alone!
In fact, cats are the leading killer of birds listed in this informative report, far surpassing all other causes. That’s more than collisions with building glass, vehicles, electrical lines and even land based wind turbines!
“True estimates of mortality are difficult to determine. However, recent studies have synthesized the best available data to estimated ranges of mortality to bird populations in North America from some of the most common, human-caused sources of bird mortality. These are listed in the table below. This list addresses only human-caused sources, not natural sources. Many additional human-caused threats to birds, both direct (causing immediate injury/death) and indirect (causing delayed negative effects to health or productivity) are not on this list because the extent of their impact is either not currently well researched or easily quantified. For instance, habitat loss is thought to pose by far the greatest threat to birds, both directly and indirectly, however, its overall impact on bird populations is very difficult to directly assess. Other common human-caused and natural threats to birds that are known, but not listed below include various entanglement and entrapment threats e.g., open pipes and nets); predation by other animals besides cats, including humans (e.g., poaching); weather events; starvation; and disease.”
You can read the report here from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.