Five bucks doesn't seem to get you a lot these days. A fancy coffee drink? A cheap pair of flip-flops?

But it can also protect a rare bird. In fact, five dollars will help rescue five Tricolored Blackbirds, a declining species that lives almost entirely in California.

Each year, Tricolored Blackbirds nest in just a few huge colonies, often in grain fields due to habitat loss. Without incentive to do otherwise, farmers sometimes harvest the fields before the young can fly. A machine harvester can easily wipe out 25 percent of the entire species’ young in just a few minutes. This year we are working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to make agreements with farmers in the Central Valley to protect several large colonies, and we are also creating new habitat in the hope that the birds will set up their colonies out of danger.

This is where you come in.

Whether we pay a farmer to delay harvesting or create new habitat, it costs money. We’ve done the math on these projects – it works out to about a dollar a bird. It’s a small price to pay to protect this beautiful but beleaguered California species.

Audubon California is working with others to come up with a long-term solution for Tricolored Blackbirds. But in the meantime, these strategies are the best way to protect a new generation of the birds each year.

When you give five dollars to the Tricolored Blackbird Conservation Fund, we’ll use it to save five birds. It’s that simple.

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