Ah, Halloween—time to dust off your giant skeletons, plan your costume, and stock up on candy. But while the aim of the season is to spook and spoil trick-or-treaters, you could unwittingly be creating a scary situation for another type of visitor: birds.
Many holiday activities lead to unintended consequences for birds and other animals. Halloween is particularly concerning, however, because it happens smack-dab in the middle of fall migration. Not only are there more birds at risk, but migrants tend to be unfamiliar with your neighborhood, stressed from their journey, and on the hunt for food—all of which makes them more vulnerable to hidden hazards.
What about Halloween can be so perilous? Here’s how to keep your spooky season from turning deadly while helping migrating birds along their journeys.
1. Avoid Fake Spider Webs
Fake webs—particularly the gauzy kind made with synthetic fibers—pose the biggest threat to birds during Halloween. “Spider web is designed by nature, and by the spider, to entangle and entrap,” says Alison Hermance, the director of communications at WildCare, a wildlife hospital in San Rafael, California. It’s no wonder that decorative webs would bear the same result. In recent years, rehabilitators at WildCare have treated web-caught birds ranging in size from an Anna’s Hummingbird to a White-crowned Sparrow and even a Western Screech-Owl. Such entanglements can lead to toxin build-up, toe amputations, and other injuries caused by restricted blood flow.
The easiest way to make your Halloween bird-friendly? Don’t hang any spider webs outside. If you absolutely can’t do without them, consider swapping out fine threads for thicker rope, leave generous gaps, and check twice a day for accidental catches. Avoid hanging webs or other decorations across open areas where birds are likely to fly (but remember that even wall-flush webs can ensnare a bird).
If you see a bird or other animal stuck in a web, don’t just untangle and release them. Even lethal entanglement injuries aren’t always obvious, Hermance says. Cut the web around the critter and bring it in a bag or box to the closest animal care center for evaluation.
2. Decorate Your Windows
One feature of your house is much more sinister than those witches flying about the yard: your glass windows. Every year in the United States alone, an estimated 988 million birds die in building-glass collisions. And during fall migration, when birds are flying quickly through unfamiliar areas, rehabilitation services like WildCare see an increase in collision injuries.
“[Halloween] is a great opportunity to put some stuff up on your window that makes it obvious to birds that there’s glass there,” Hermance says. Ghost and witch decals, fake giant spiders, and silhouettes of hissing black cats all match the mood of the season while also reducing impacts. For folks dedicated to spiderwebs, consider hanging the webbing on the inside of your windows—a real win-win.
And when it’s time to take down the Halloween decorations, you can keep your windows safe for birds year-round by using decals, strings, and window feeders.
3. Mind Your Pumpkin Placement
While a pumpkin can be a tasty and healthy treat for some birds—they will happily eat the skin, flesh, and seeds—a poorly placed gourd can entice them into a potentially dangerous situation, Hermance says. Consider the proximity of traffic, glass surfaces, and household pets when you put out your pumpkin decorations. In general, it’s a good idea to keep cats inside or limited to a catio year-round, but especially during fall and spring migration.
Once you’re done displaying your pumpkin, instead of throwing it out, dispose it somewhere outside to provide a food source. Just make sure it’s in a place where you’re comfortable having furry and feathered visitors, both for their safety and your own.
4. Make a Pumpkin Feeder
Want a more creative way to dispose of your pumpkin? Transform it into a bird feeder! If you’ve already carved the pumpkin and scooped out the guts, all you have to do is cut it in half. Then take one of the halves, poke a stick through the wall to serve as a perch, and fill the pumpkin with birdseed. Use rope to hang the feeder. Voilà!
5. Be Careful With Your Candy
Unlike trick-or-treaters, birds are more interested in candy wrappers than what’s inside. Their shininess can attract curious birds like crows, ravens, and jays, which can put them in a dangerous situation like getting hit by a car or attacked by a pet. Loose wrappers can also be ingested or choked on. Providing a small trash can for impatient kiddos can help decrease litter during the main event, and if you spot any leftover wrappers around your neighborhood, do your part by picking them up.
As for the candy itself, if a bird does get a hold of a sweet treat, “I wouldn’t be too worried about an animal getting overly sick from it,” Hermance says.
6. Go Natural, Not Fake
Autumn demands nature decorations—corn husks, hay bales, berries, and nuts— and it can be tempting to opt for long-lasting artificial nature decor. But if it looks lifelike to you, it may cause confusion for foraging animals, and eating plastic decorations could cause digestion issues or choking. So, place any fake nuts or fruits away from trees or open areas, which are common foraging areas for birds, suggests Marlene Pantin, the senior program manager of Plants for Birds at Audubon. And keep them away from windows to avoid glass collisions when birds comes to investigate.
Consider planting native flora that will produce festive-looking—and delicious to birds—berries during autumn.
Better yet, go natural! Plastic pollution currently threatens birds’ long-term survival, so fresh decorations can provide food and shelter without contributing to landfills. As always, be mindful that food does attract wildlife. Make sure it’s in an area where you don’t mind having animal visitors and they won’t be threatened by cars or pets.
If you want to go a step further and have the ability, consider planting native plants that will produce festive-looking—and delicious to birds—berries during autumn. Pantin recommends winterberry (Ilex verticilata), American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), and flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) as a few good options. Check out Audubon’s Native Plant Database for more ideas.
7. Drive Slowly for Kids and Creatures
As you drive slowly to keep human trick-or-treaters safe, watch out for wildlife, too. The increase in human activity, loud noises, and bright lights are disturbing to wild animals and can cause them to become disoriented. Hermance recalls an owl who came into the hospital after being struck by a car on Halloween night several years ago. “I’m sure that he just got disturbed by people walking around too much,” she says. Cutting through dark yards while trick-or-treating can also disturb sleeping animals, so consider taking a lit path.
Spooky season can be a fun time for humans and birds alike—as long as we’re mindful. “It’s a human holiday, but it’s not just the human’s habitat,” Hermance says. “It also belongs to all of our friends that we share our neighborhoods [with].”
