In 1909 a bill was brought before Congress for the protection, in the form sanctuaries, of migratory birds, it was known as the Weekes-McLean Bird Bill. By 1911 it was in danger of dying a natural death because the Bill’s sponsors could not drum up enough support to get the Bill passed.
The Migratory Bird Act of 1913, the first federal bird protection law in the United States, would likely have been ignored in Congress without Ford’s ambitious campaigning efforts to secure passage and support the Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada, to improve the lives of farmers.
Ford later acknowledged that the imported birds did not stick around or successfully colonize the area, remarking in hindsight: "They stayed around for a while, but where they are now I do not know. I shall not import any more. Birds are entitled to live where they want to live."
University of Michigan Press later published a full book on the subject, “Best of Companions: Henry Ford and the Protection of Birdlife in America.”
Best of Companions weaves Henry Ford’s personal and very public participation in bird protection into the overall national push to save disappearing North American birdlife in the early twentieth century.
Acting on his love of birds, Ford formed acquaintances and friendships with some of the most prominent North American wildlife conservation activists of the time.
Michigan Audubon Society President Jefferson Butler was recruited to plan, establish, and promote an expansive, visionary bird protection project known as Henry Ford’s Bird Farm.
Highlighting the economic benefit of birds, the farm modeled how farmers could use both natural and artificial means to boost populations of native insectivorous bird species on their land, reducing crop damage from insects and increasing agricultural productivity.
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