Help turn cruise ships into partners in bird conservation.

Every year, extraordinary little travelers cross enormous stretches of ocean.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds—tiny birds weighing only a few grams—can fly for 18–20 hours without stopping to cross the Gulf of Mexico during migration.

Other migratory birds travel thousands of miles between North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

And every year, cruise ships travel through these same waters.

We believe those ships can become part of the solution.

We are asking cruise lines to launch a Caribbean Bird-Safe Ship Initiative.
We ask cruise companies to:

🐦 Reduce unnecessary nighttime lighting during migration.
Artificial light can attract and disorient migrating birds and increase their risk of exhaustion and collisions. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service already recommends bird-safe lighting practices for cruise ships.

🌺 Study whether carefully designed hummingbird feeding and observation stations could safely help migrating hummingbirds.
We are not asking cruise lines to assume that feeders are beneficial.

We are asking them to work with qualified wildlife scientists to study the possibility and conduct a carefully controlled pilot program.

🔭 Create opportunities for passengers to observe and document migration.
Passengers could become citizen scientists by recording bird sightings and submitting observations through established conservation platforms such as eBird.

🚢 Track bird encounters and collisions.
Cruise ships already travel through important migration routes. Better data could help scientists understand how ships affect migrating birds and which interventions actually work.

🌎 Make bird conservation part of the passenger experience.
Cruise lines could offer birdwatching programs, naturalist presentations, migration education, wildlife photography opportunities, and conservation-focused activities.

Why this matters
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service already recognizes cruise ships as a potential concern for migrating birds and has created specific guidance for reducing bird collisions.

Research has also documented bird mortality associated with cruise ships in the Caribbean.

This means we already know there is a problem worth addressing.

Now we need to ask:

Can cruise ships become part of the solution?

Sign this petition and ask cruise lines to work with wildlife scientists to find out.

LET'S MAKE THE OCEAN A LITTLE SAFER FOR THE TINY TRAVELERS CROSSING IT.
Project Hummingbird Passage

Protect the journey. Protect the birds.

Basic information from Google:

The High Cost of the Gulf Crossing

80% First-Year Mortality: Roughly 80% of juvenile hummingbirds do not survive their first year, with their first southward migration across or around the Gulf being the single most dangerous hurdle of their lives. [1]

25% Fuel-Shortage Estimate: Across the entire population, an estimated 25% of hummingbirds die due to fuel shortages. If a hummingbird does not double its body mass by storing enough fat before takeoff, it will run out of energy mid-flight. [2]

Weather Catastrophes: Hummingbirds migrate during peak hurricane and tropical storm season. A sudden, strong headwind over the Gulf of Mexico can increase flight time past their 18-to-22-hour physical limit, causing entire flocks to exhaust their energy reserves and drown. [3]

1. 80% First-Year Mortality
The Origin: This statistic reflects a broad consensus among ornithologists tracking migratory songbirds and hummingbirds. Because hummingbirds cannot carry heavy satellite trackers, population dynamics are calculated using long-term bird banding data managed by organizations like the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory and independent migration monitoring stations like the Hilliardton Marsh Research Education Centre. 
The Context: Banding data shows a steep drop-off in the recapture of juvenile birds from one autumn to the next spring. While it is generally accepted that up to 75–80% of young birds do not survive their first full year, this accounts for all first-year hazards—including window strikes, backyard predators, learning to forage and deaths occurring over the Gulf water itself. 
 
2. The 25% "Fuel Shortage"
The Origin: This specific percentage frequently circulates in community birding forums, online blogs, and social media education posts.
The Context: In formal academic research, scientists evaluate this risk using physiological flight modeling rather than direct mortality counts. Notably, researchers Theodore Zenzal Jr. and Frank Moore published a cornerstone study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances (2016). They measured the fat loads of thousands of staging hummingbirds on the Alabama coast.
What the science says: Their models proved that while an average well-fueled hummingbird carries enough fat reserves to cross the Gulf under ideal conditions, birds with lower fat reserves run a severe risk of depletion. While the "25% mortality" figure is used colloquially as an estimate of how many birds attempt migrations with insufficient fuel, field biology literature generally frames this as a variable risk based on body condition and headwinds rather than a fixed, verified percentage.
 
3. Weather Catastrophes and Hurricanes
The Origin: This is documented through immediate observations by coastal wildlife refuges, maritime workers, and organizations like Journey North, which crowdsources citizen science tracking data.
The Context: The physical limits of a ruby-throated hummingbird's nonstop flight over the Gulf (roughly 18 to 22 hours under favorable conditions) are documented by the USDA Forest Service. Fall migration directly coincides with the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season (August through October). When strong tropical headwinds blow south, they mathematically extend the required flight duration past the bird's maximal energy capacity, leading to documented, catastrophic weather-induced drowning events.