By Laura Cremin and David Robinson

America’s birding community has always advocated for conservation policies. Low voter turnout, however, is a huge roadblock to success. Although Americans prioritize environmental policies and climate action more than ever before, many simply do not vote. For instance, over 15 million identifiable environmentalists did not vote in the 2018 midterms. This failure to make our voices heard at the ballot box has tremendous implications for the future survival of birds, their habitat, and the communities — natural and human — we love.

That’s why we formed Auk the Vote!, an entirely grassroots campaign to educate and mobilize birders to join volunteer Get Out The Vote efforts. The birders come from all over the U.S. (and beyond!), united in our love for birds and our understanding that we’re rapidly approaching a point of no return for fighting climate change, protecting endangered species, and conserving rapidly vanishing wildlife habitat.

As widely reported last year, the Western Hemisphere has lost almost a quarter of its avian population over the past 50 years — a loss of 3 billion birds! And now, with climate change accelerating at an alarming pace, two-thirds of North American birds will be driven much closer to extinction — and many pushed over the edge, lost forever — if we don’t do all we can to keep our planet from heating up more than a couple of degrees.

Birders, bird and wildlife organizations, conservation organizations, and environmental-justice organizations are working on numerous fronts to confront the challenges we’re facing. We need leaders who will support and strengthen such work. Unfortunately, as we document in our Bird’s Eye View of the 2020 Elections, foundational environmental policies, critical for long-term planning, are at risk — and in some cases (such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act) under outright attack.

But all hope is not lost — far from it! A unique confluence of events has pushed birdwatching to the forefront of our national consciousness. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing millions of Americans to stay home or close to home for weeks and months, birdwatching has spread far beyond the self-identified birding community. People who never paid much attention to birds are now discovering their beauty and fascination, which can connect us to nature almost anywhere — in the countryside, of course, but also in the parks and on the streets of every town and city in our country.…