During nesting seasons, wildfires often force parent birds to make heart-wrenching choices: Remain in perilous conditions to care for their young or abandon their nests to seek safer grounds—a decision filled with additional dangers. This dilemma is a contributing factor to significant population declines for certain birds.

Western Burrowing Owls are one unique species being forced to make tough decisions due to the threat of wildfire. Their population is already struggling as modern agricultural practices have removed the prairie dogs and ground squirrels they depend on to provide nesting burrows. And as their sagebrush steppe habitat disappears as a result of wildfires each year, an estimated 15+ million acres were lost between 2000 and 2018, these extraordinary owls are forced to seek shelter and sustenance in airports, golf courses, and vacant lots.

In this code-red crisis, you are the best hope birds have. Please start your annual gift now while your first gift will be matched up to $50,000 to provide a brighter future for the birds we love.