These Holiday Decorations Aren’t Safe for Local Wildlife (and What to Use Instead)

Here's how to keep birds and other wildlife safe while decorating outdoors this holiday season.

Who doesn’t love a nice outdoor light display or a garland with red berries wrapped around the porch railing for the holidays? Outdoor decorations in the gray, dark stretch of winter when the days are short feels like a little patch of joy to come home to. But your holiday decorations can harm wildlife if you’re not careful. Designing your display so it doesn’t catch birds and other wildlife is important—here’s what to keep in mind when decorating outdoors this year.

Choose safer garlands

Using garlands outside is OK, but fake berries can fool birds and other animals into thinking they’re a good snack. On your porch or front door, some fake berry might be fine, but on trees and bushes, anything resembling a food source should be avoided. Eating plastic or styrofoam berries is obviously not good for wildlife, so you should opt for real berries (dried or fresh) on any outdoor wreaths and garlands. Using a native species is even better, because then if the local fauna decides to snack on your decor, at least they’ll be eating something likely healthy for them.

Wildlife-friendly holiday decor:

• Rope lights ($21.59)

• Colored flood lights ($22.49)

• Candy cane pathway lights ($19.97)

• Laser projection displays ($39.99)

Avoid netting and small wires

Decorations that are made with netting and small wires are also a bad idea because of their tendency to snag birds. Especially fine netting that’s hard for birds to see is a problem. Larger gauge wire that’s less flexible and thus less likely to get wrapped around a creature coming into contact with it is a better choice. You can also choose decorations that are on stiff backing like wood or metal framing instead of mesh to protect local wildlife.

Use string lights safely

String lights are a big part of holiday decor, but they can be deadly for birds in the wrong circumstances: If you string lights in trees without securing them, birds can get tangled up. If you have a lighted tree or shrub as a part of your display, you should check on it once a day to make sure the lights remain secure and you haven’t caught any wildlife.

Avoid stringy fake snow

Batting and other fibers used as fake snow are another thing to avoid in outdoor displays: Because stringy materials can get stuck to paws and claws, these materials can trap animals. Instead, use painted snow or textured surfaces made to look like snow if you enjoy the look of a wintery blanket, but avoid anything that is stringy or has long fibers in it.

Things to use instead

You don’t need to limit your merriment to protect wildlife. Anything that doesn’t resemble a food source to wild birds or have wires, strings, or netting for them to get stuck in is fair game—all the light-up snowmen and giant globes can stay. Even your garlands are OK if they’re decorated carefully. When in doubt, think big. The larger the gauge of wire or the bigger the fake berry is, the less likely it will be to harm a bird. Trade out string lights for rope lights so wires are encased in a tube and are unable to snag a passing bird. Use colored flood lights, holiday themed pathway lights, or laser projection displays as an alternative to lighted netting or tangles of wired string lights, and opt for real plants like mistletoe, which is perfectly safe for birds to eat and has the added benefit of helping birds that overwinter in place to stay fed during the winter months.