There are millions of young birds across the country heading into their first ever winter. Most of them will be dead by spring. First-year mortality for small songbirds is brutal - up to 80% don't make it. And with 3 billion fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970, every one we help make it through winter is a win. Four things you can do to move the needle: 1. Provide shelter. Shelter arguably matters as much or more than food. A small bird burns a relatively high number of calories overnight just trying to staying warm. Leave your nest boxes up, and consider building a brush pile to give small birds a place to hunker down. 2. Give them water. When it's below freezing outside, water is scarcer than food. A heated bath or a heater in the one you have is one of the highest-value things in a winter yard. 3. Leave the food that's already in your yard. Don't cut the seed heads. Coneflower, black-eyed Susan, sunflower, aster - don't rush to deadhead and clean up the garden. Leave the berries on the winterberry and the dogwood. 4. Put the feeder up now. They might not need it yet, but birds work from a map of reliable food and learn it during the easy months. A feeder that appears in the middle of winter is one that can take weeks to be found. What your yard does this winter could mean the difference between a dozen or so young birds making it, or losing the battle in their first winter.