8
How can we help protect birds from cats?
(fedia.io)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2026
8 points (61.1% liked)
birding
6095 readers
179 users here now
Welcome to /c/birding, a community for people who like birds, birdwatching and birding in general! Feel free to post your birding photos or just photos of birds you found in general, but please follow the rules as outlined below.
-
This should go without saying, but please be nice to one another. No petty insults, no bigotry, no harassment, hate speech,nothing of that sort! Depending on the severity, you'll either only get your comment removed and a warning or your comment will be removed and you will be banned from /c/birding.
-
This is a community for posting content of birds, nothing else. Please keep the posts related to birding or birds in general.
-
When posting photos or videos that you did not take, please always credit the original photographer! Link to the original post on social media as well, if there is one.
-
Absolutely no AI-generated content is allowed! I know it has become quite difficult to tell whether or not something is AI-generated or not, but please make sure that whatever you post is not AI-generated. If it is, your post will be removed. If you continously post AI-generated content, you'll be banned from /c/birding (but it's obviously okay if you post AI-generated stuff once or twice without knowing you did so).
-
Please provide rough information location, if possible. This is a more loosely-enforced rule, especially because it is sometimes not possible to provide a location. But if you post a photo you took yourself, please provide a rough location and date of the sighting.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
so i know house cats being let outdoors is a huge issue and owners should be made aware of this - many may not realize the gravity of their decision. i think, however, going after feral cat populations may have the most significant effect. you could look for trap-neuter-return programs in your area and support those efforts. it isn't the instant results you may be looking for, but i think it's probably the most humane response likely to show positive long-term results outside of finding a program that puts the cats into a sanctuary (trap-neuter-remove). while this would be preferable, those programs seem much rarer.
otherwise, on an individual level, assuming you are a home owner, you could create feeding areas that are safe for birds - fenced off from cats with shrubbery and/or dead hedges for added safety.
and while you're at it, don't forget to make homes bird-friendly by addressing outdoor lighting and windows so birds can safely migrate and avoid window collisions.
bird friendly homes | u.s. fish and wildlife service
anyway, that's my two cents. interested in any other ideas yall may have.
@crowcore_explorer The TNR program in Seattle that I donate to and we got our cats from places up to 80% of their trapped cats up for adoption successfully. So not only are TNR programs probably get a lot more cats off of the streets than you might think.
that's so good to hear!
@crowcore_explorer
This study from 2025 might be of interest to you.
With scientific methods , the Simon Fraser University in Canada, and the feral cat rescue group Tinykittens Society, were able to show that managed cat colonies (providing enough cat food daily and doing TNR) reduce wild prey hunting significantly!
"Evaluating the Effects of Managed Free-Roaming Cat Populations on Prey Through Stable Isotope Analysis:
A Pilot Study from British Columbia, Canada" (2025)
full open-access article: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15213204
#TNR #wildlife #cats #feralCats #CatColony #colonyManagement #study #AnimalWelfare
#stableIsotopeAnalysis #freeroamingcats
@crowcore_explorer
Abstract from the study:
Free-roaming domestic cats (Felis catus) present a major management challenge for animal welfare and biodiversity conservation.
Trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs, which include sterilization and return of cats, are increasingly adopted to manage cat populations, often alongside routine food provisioning.
However, their effectiveness in reducing cats’ reliance on wild prey remains contested.
In this study, we use stable isotope analysis (...) of cat fur to investigate dietary patterns before and after TNR implementation (...).
We analyzed samples from 122 cats in a large-scale TNR initiative on a rural property in British Columbia, Canada. These included
Local prey and food sources were also analyzed to provide a comparative isotopic baseline. Our results show clear dietary shifts following TNR.
Group 1 cats exhibited high isotopic variability and elevated δ15N and δ34S values, consistent with wild prey consumption.
In contrast, post-TNR cats showed significantly lower and more homogeneous values, aligning closely with those of indoor, kibble-fed cats.
These changes are consistent with a reduced dietary reliance on wildlife (...) following the combination of TNR with regular provisioning.
These findings demonstrate that regular food provisioning in TNR-managed colonies, particularly when combined with broader environmental changes, can significantly alter cat diets and potentially reduce their dependence on wild prey."
From: Evaluating the Effects of Managed Free-Roaming Cat Populations on Prey Through Stable Isotope Analysis: A Pilot Study from British Columbia, Canada, 2025
thanks for the info. that's a really interesting study. i guess the easy answer is to just do the purge but make it cats which doesn't seem very humane. it's a problem that doesn't have an easy answer since these programs seem pretty reliant on consistent inputs of time (trapping, feeding) and resources (vets, food, volunteers and donors if not handled by the state). and it's all just made so much worse by climate change.
not to mention that if you're going to tackle predation and not look for a solution to habitat destruction and fracturing you're only dealing with part of the bird population puzzle.