Nonprofit Spotlight – Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership

Did you know that for Maryland’s native birds, finding the right habitat is becoming increasingly difficult? However, the Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership (MBCP) is changing that narrative from the ground up. In this sixth post in our ongoing series of nonprofit organizations, we introduce you to the MBCP, its programs, and our recent collaborations to help support Maryland birds through planting native plants.

Every piece of habitat matters. Native plants support the insects that support the rest of the ecosystem many, many times better than introduced plants. By improving your yard with native plants, you contribute to a growing network of habitat that collectively supports both breeding and migrating birds. – Gabriel Foley, Executive Director, Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership

About Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership

The Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership was established in 2014 to create a collaborative, science-driven effort to conserve Maryland’s native and migratory birds and their habitats. MBCP brings together government agencies, nonprofits, private sector partners, and community stakeholders to coordinate conservation priorities, implement programs, and monitor bird populations.

MBPC’s flagship programs include the Maryland Farmland Raptor Program, Bird City Maryland, and the Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas 3 (BBA3).

According to the MBCP website, together MBPC and its partners are:

• creating conditions for birds to flourish in Maryland’s diverse landscapes.
• providing thought leadership and developing data about Maryland birds and habitats to support conservation decision making.
• conducting outreach to people who care about Maryland’s birds and engaging them in Maryland’s bird conservation opportunities.

Featured News and Garden Stories

Through their featured news articles and garden stories, MBCP has recently shared some of the valuable work of Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay Chapter and our partners to showcase how we are bridging the gap between our backyards and the skies, proving that the secret to supporting birds starts with native plants.

Garden Stories

Earlier this year, several of our members had the pleasure of meeting and working with the creator of MBCP’s Garden Stories, Margaret Poethig. Through visual storytelling, Margaret is bringing the beauty and benefit of native plants to helping Maryland’s birds, one reel at a time.

Storytelling has been a hobby of mine for a long time. When I retired and became a birder, I became interested in learning about conservation storytelling. The purpose of conservation storytelling is to capture people’s attention and spark their imagination about what they can do to help the environment. 

Initially I discussed with MBCP’s director, Gabriel Foley, the idea of making a podcast about bird conservation in Maryland, because audio is the medium I love most. But I had to be realistic. Video, especially social media Reels, is the medium that everyone is using to get their message out into the world. So I taught myself how to make Reels. 

The idea for the Garden Stories series came in the Spring of 2026 when MBCP hosted a Webinar called “Invite Backyard Birds to the Front Yard.”  I made a Reel with fellow birders and friends Emily Huang and Karen Cyr to advertise the Webinar. Emily and Karen are neighbors who live across the street from one another, and they share knowledge and plants to help expand each other’s native gardens. Emily’s Garden Story message is that creating a habitat for birds with native plants is easy, doesn’t have to cost a lot, and becomes a bond between friends and neighbors. Simple and sweet. 

I sought out more stories, each with a specific message, told from different places around Maryland. And over the course of the spring and summer I made nine Garden Stories videos. Number ten, eleven, and twelve are in the works. Making these videos has been one of the most fun and satisfying activities of my year. They do require a lot of my time, including traveling to different parts of Maryland. But I enjoy seeing different parts of the state and meeting new people (and always try to do a little birding when I’m out and about). 

If the stories are inspiring people to start native gardens, or to expand their gardens to the front yard where a different kind of landscape sparks conversations with neighbors, then the effort has been worth it. – Margaret Poethig

Marlene’s Garden Story

Did you hear that?

“Listen. Listen.”

For Marlene, the sound can stop her in her tracks. A squeaky chirp and the whir of wings means a Ruby-throated Hummingbird is moving through her garden.

Marlene and her husband Bill live in southern Maryland, where they’ve created a native garden. As so many of us, Marlene started her native plant journey by replacing turf. She wanted to attract monarch butterflies, but in doing so she noticed something else arriving in her garden — hummingbirds!

They began visiting from spring through fall, drawn to the nectar provided by native plants such as coral honeysuckle and wild bergamot. Now, Marlene plans her garden with hummingbirds in mind, making sure something is blooming across the whole growing season. She has learned that the garden provides more than nectar too. Native plants attract the insects that hummingbirds need as part of their diet, especially when raising their chicks.

“Did you hear it?” Marlene asks in her video. That moment captures something we’ve seen throughout these Garden Stories. Creating habitat leads to delightful discoveries of wildlife that wasn’t there before, actively using the plants you have tended. It’s a special sense of pride, satisfaction, and joy. You’ve taken your small part of the world and you’ve made it a little better — not just for your yourself, but also for the critters around us.

It’s almost impossible not to share these feelings with others, and Marlene has certainly shown that! Through NatureFest and her work with Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, she has helped share information about native plants that provide resources for hummingbirds throughout the seasons.

Sharing information and the joy that comes alongside helping our ecosystems flourish is an important part of MBCP’s work. We connect people with information, conservation opportunities, and one another so that more Marylanders can participate in protecting birds and the places they depend on. ~ Gabriel Foley, Executive Director, Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership, September 15, 2026

Watch for upcoming announcements on more of Margaret’s Garden Stories captured in Southern Maryland. Click here to watch all MBCP Garden Stories, including The Bird Beds of the University of Maryland, featuring Andrew Heffner, Outreach Coordinator of Nurture Natives.

A Community Resource that Benefits Birds – Featured News

Did you know that you can help Maryland’s birds by going to the library? Communities that are recognized by Bird City Maryland, an initiative of the Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership, are creatively completing actions in the “Education and Engagement” category with seed libraries.

Bird City Maryland communities collectively make a difference by educating property owners about best practices for creating and enhancing habitat for birds. Bird friendly actions includes native plant gardens, seed libraries, habitat certifications, invasives removal and educational programming. – Pamela Kellett, Coordinator of Bird City Maryland

In a featured article, A Community Resource That Benefits Birds, Pamela Kellet introduces readers to the concept of seed libraries and highlights three Bird City Maryland communities that have seed libraries, all of which have registered with the Seed Library Network:

• The Middletown Library: Growing Community Through Gardening
• College of Southern Maryland: Saving Seed and Sharing Abundance through its “Seed Box”
• The Brunswick Library: Bird-Friendly Inside and Out

According to Kellet, “Each library has a unique approach to ‘checking out’ seeds and also provides education to community members about seed planting and sowing, native plants and their benefits, companion planting, pollinator gardens, and invasive species removal.” Read the full article here.

Seed libraries fulfill the goal of Bird City Maryland: “to make communities healthy for birds and people.”

Click here to read all MBCP Featured News articles, including Maryland Bird Campus Launches Horseshoe Crab Project, featuring Tracey Stuller, chapter member and professor of biology and Bird Campus project leader at the College of Southern Maryland.

Coming Soon

Several of our members recently met with Margaret Poethig at the College of Southern Maryland as she collected footage for the CSM Seed Library and for seed collection activities in native pollinator gardens. Watch for announcements on upcoming Garden Stories and Featured News articles capturing more of the local work being done in Southern Maryland to provide native plant habitat for insects, birds, and other wildlife.

Additional Resources

• Seed Libraries February 6, 2025
• Nonprofit Spotlight – Seed Library Network March 15, 2026

✍️ M.Smith