The most important thing to know about me is my love for birds. Anyone in my life could tell you that I’ve been obsessed with them for as long as I can remember. I decorated my life with bird-themed everything, I picked up bird-watching and spent time memorizing every local songbird’s call. So when I learned how threatened global bird populations were, it felt like a personal attack.

While I now call Baltimore home, I grew up in a small river town in the heart of the Hudson Valley. The Hudson is infamous for its rocky history with environmental conservation. Decades of industrial dumping had polluted the water and poisoned its plants and animals. In 1962, a 20-year legal battle began between grassroots environmentalists and Consolidated Edison Company over its plans to build a hydroelectric plant on a scenic mountain. This battle was the birthplace of modern environmental law. While still not entirely clean, the Hudson is a story of hope for conservationists. Instead of a fear of poisonous water, I spent my childhood swimming in its river, scampering over bouldered hiking trails and spending lazy afternoons picnicking on the riverbed. I was surrounded by a vibrant ecosystem. This history and intimate connection fostered a deep love of the environment. Pair that with a perhaps unhealthy love of our avian friends and you get a very enthused bird conservationist.

But the importance of bird conservation does not start or end with one passionate 21-year-old. Birds are an important indicator of environmental health and human impact in a region. They perform functions across trophic levels, including pollinating plants, shaping physical landscapes in marshes and reefs, seed dispersal, controlling pest populations like mice, rats, and mosquitos, and limiting the spread of disease by scavenging roadkill. Without healthy bird populations, the entire ecosystem would suffer. Yet, birds are incredibly vulnerable to the impacts of human development and climate change. Many bird species are sensitive to temperature changes and have already shifted the timing of their migration patterns, which impacts the amount of resources available to them. They are also prime victims of pollutants like pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, so the health of wild birds can serve as a warning sign for the overall safety of an ecosystem. Since birds are so visible, it is easy for scientists to observe them, this makes them the perfect taxonomic group to study environmental change in.

Unfortunately, birds are already feeling the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. In North America alone, bird populations have decreased by 3 billion breeding pairs, an almost one in four bird drop since 1970. According to Cornell’s ornithology lab, almost half of existing bird species worldwide are on the decline. These declines are felt everywhere, but most intensely in marine and shorebirds, including in the Chesapeake Bay. The red-winged blackbird and eastern black rail, two common bay birds, have been severely impacted. The blackbird has experienced a population decline of 439 million. The eastern black rail is being considered for threatened species status. This decline is not just due to temperature sensitivity or pollution either. For these bay birds, rising sea levels are washing their nesting habitats away. Further human development has reduced bird habitats. Outdoor cats, wind turbines and glass windows in high rises kill billions of birds every year.

But not all hope is lost. Making the world a safer place for birds, and their entire ecosystems, is easier than you think. Planting native plants provides an important food source for young birds and helps to increase the biodiversity of your neighborhood. Adding window screens to make your glass windows more visible can protect them as well. If you have cats, keep them inside. Not only will that protect your local songbirds, but your cat will lead a safer life too! Finally, loving birds as outwardly and enthusiastically as you can is the best thing you can do for them. Vocal support lets lawmakers know that birds are important to you. Birdwatching is one of the richest sources of citizen science, which provides ample information about population health to those tasked with keeping our birds safe.

Birds are incredibly important animals to ecosystems and people, including myself, across the globe. They have been harmed by our worsening climate, yes, but we have many easy, simple and proven ways to help protect bird populations to hopefully make our communities a little healthier and a little bit more avian.

Eliza Principe Garcia is a student at Johns Hopkins University studying environmental science.