Audubon Southwest and the City of Phoenix are bringing the community together around a shared vision: making Phoenix a place where birds can thrive.
The initiative Bird-Friendly PHX invites residents to take simple actions at home and across the community to help birds, whether they’re migrating through the city or call Phoenix home year-round, because a healthy city for birds is a healthy city for people.
The partnership was celebrated at a community event at the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center in South Phoenix on September 29, 2026, featuring the Audubon documentary Birds on the Move: Desert Rivers and remarks by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, City of Phoenix Environmental Program Manager Tricia Balluff, and Audubon Southwest Senior Policy Director Haley Paul, with Erika Flores, Audubon Communications and Marketing Director for the Southwest and Rockies, welcoming attendees.
Helping Birds Along Their Journey
For migratory birds, cities like Phoenix can provide important places to rest and refuel along their journeys. But navigating an urban environment also presents challenges. Birds need healthy places where they can find food and shelter, safely move through the landscape, and raise their young. Artificial light at night can disorient migrating birds, drawing them off their migration paths and causing them to expend valuable energy flying and calling in confusion. Exhaustion can then leave birds more vulnerable to other threats found in urban environments.
Clear and reflective windows can also pose challenges for birds, while the availability of native plants and healthy habitat can make a meaningful difference in providing the food and shelter birds need.
Creating a bird-friendly Phoenix isn’t only about helping birds passing through during migration. The same actions can support the more than 100 bird species that call Phoenix home throughout the year.
Small Actions Can Make a Big Difference
Bird-Friendly PHX gives everyone an opportunity to help birds. Take the Bird-Friendly PHX pledge and commit to simple actions at home, including:
- Turning off unnecessary light.
- Closing curtains and blinds at night.
- Installing shielded outdoor light fixtures that direct light downward.
- Adding decals or other treatments to clear and reflective windows to help make them more visible to birds.
- Supervising pets while outdoors.
- Planting native plants that provide food and habitat.
- Minimizing the use of pesticides and herbicides.
Individually, these actions can help make homes and neighborhoods safer for birds. Taken together across Phoenix, they represent something larger: a community working collectively to create a city where birds and people can thrive.
