Each spring, billions of birds, representing more than half of North America's bird species, descend on the wild Canadian boreal forest to build nests and raise their young. By summer's end, these flyers and their fledglings will head south, where many will rest and feed in American backyards. For many bird species, this ancient forest, with its network of lakes, river valleys and wetlands, provides their only nesting ground.

Yet critical nesting areas in the western boreal are under threat by a new type of oil development. In Alberta, tar sands mining and drilling is destroying and fragmenting bird habitat and will result in the loss of millions of birds. Toxic waste ponds alone can kill thousands of birds each year. Yet Alberta continues to allow the expansion of the tar sands industry in the boreal, anticipating a growth from 1.3 million barrels per day to as high as 5 million barrels per day. If this destruction continues, as many as 166 million birds, including future generations, could be permanently lost.

To help protect some of the boreal forest's most important bird breeding areas, tell Canadian government officials to halt the expansion of tar sands mining, which is destroying the nesting ground for the birds that we love. Urge them to protect bird habitat throughout the boreal.