BIRDING TODAY: Birds are smart, but they need everyone's help.

Oct. 28—Plasticosis is a newly described disease that has been in existence for a long time that causes severe stomach damage from eating tiny bits of plastic. Thank the large colonies of Flesh-footed Shearwater in Australian waters for having this deadly condition named.

However, it affects many species including marine animals, because it smells like food when it is surrounded by food. Remember when tiny bits of plastic were in toothpaste to increase the cleaning power? Right...

This is not addressed only to those individuals that tend to help so much that are usually unnamed, but the Journal of Hazardous Materials also has a stake in this, as does the plastics industries, chemical companies, ad nauseum.

This also ties in with the loss of three billion birds, and why we should be upping the stakes on planting native, not using lawn chemicals, keeping cats inside, preventing window strikes, drinking bird friendly coffee, and giving thanks to researchers that learned how magnetic storms could be avoided in avian compasses. Birds are smart, but they need everyone's help.

Young birds in breeding colonies everywhere in the seven seas have been affected by this malaise, some more than others. Island Conservation and American Bird Conservancy are removing invasive species from so many islands at an astronomical cost, the plastic is still in the ocean and even in the small food fish and eggs that birds like the Laysan Albatross and other seabirds are feeding their nestlings. It is a vicious cycle that we are all are needed to help combat.

The good news is research is on it. States like California are banning single use plastics, as are the federally owned parks, and the European Union, as examples. Organizations are mobilizing and quickly, as the processes will permit them. Expect to hear word on the general field of plastic pollution.

Entanglement is still an issue when it comes to shore or wrackline foragers, floating plastic trash, plastic lines, and netting, as well as flip-flops, toothbrushes, etc., where eggs are laid. The plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces, that even resemble fish eggs, and that could well include more danger to the Red Knot, who also will need help with this problem. They were threatened by the loss of their blood for medical research procedures and oil spills affecting the Delaware colony earlier in the century.

Since this is a situation where random seabirds and shorebirds are affected, it is of great importance. On top of that, plastics are even in human blood samples.

Birds have always been indicator species, and what they have been telling us for decades is that we must be part of this solution and do all we can to insure our own survival in the scheme of life.

We need to recycle, reduce trash, protect breeding areas, patronize businesses that are known for pitching in with the problem, and reduce usage when it come to plastic.

Help us help THEM.

Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and professional photographer living in Stillwater.