Keep the cat in at dawn during nesting season
Fledglings leave the nest unable to fly properly for about a fortnight. Dawn is when both cats and birds are busiest.
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Why it lands
Cats are efficient and fledglings are briefly defenseless, and the overlap is a few weeks in late spring when young birds are out of the nest and flightless on the ground. Keeping a cat in for the first few hours of daylight through that period measurably reduces what it catches, and costs the cat nothing it will remember. This is a narrow, well-evidenced intervention rather than a general position about cats.
How
Late spring through early summer, keep them in from first light until mid-morning and again at dusk. A collar bell helps a little; a bright collar cover helps more, because birds see color well. Feed them before they go out rather than after.
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