It depends on the country and who you ask. If you ask the UK Government[0] and UK’s RSPB[1] you will find that cats are a predator of birds but there is no evidence that they are the reason for the declining bird population.
In the UK garden birds are on the incline which would be counter to the general public argument that (paraphrasing here) “pet cats are killing all the birds”.
The declining bird population as whole is put down to other factors such has changes to how we farm food, decreasing hedgerows, basically us humans ripping out the birds habitats and not our cats murdering them.
Where I live small rodents are a pest, there is a large number of them and we want to control their number. Cats will stick to their learnt hunting behaviour. If they learn to hunt rodents when they are young then that’s what they will focus on hunting in their adult life’s. So in my area my cat mainly hunts rodents (comparing the numbers of mice she brings home compared to the number of birds she has). So as a kitten (and though out it’s life) play with ground based hunting toys instead of airborne toys. Get them a bell on their collar, and change it up ever now and then.
Now... Am I going to say that this is the case in all countries? Nope. Let’s take Australia where the feral cat population is vastly growing which is causing harm to the native rodent population, but that’s been blamed on the feral population and are being culled and not the domestic cats living with humans.
In the UK garden birds are on the incline which would be counter to the general public argument that (paraphrasing here) “pet cats are killing all the birds”.
The declining bird population as whole is put down to other factors such has changes to how we farm food, decreasing hedgerows, basically us humans ripping out the birds habitats and not our cats murdering them.
Where I live small rodents are a pest, there is a large number of them and we want to control their number. Cats will stick to their learnt hunting behaviour. If they learn to hunt rodents when they are young then that’s what they will focus on hunting in their adult life’s. So in my area my cat mainly hunts rodents (comparing the numbers of mice she brings home compared to the number of birds she has). So as a kitten (and though out it’s life) play with ground based hunting toys instead of airborne toys. Get them a bell on their collar, and change it up ever now and then.
Now... Am I going to say that this is the case in all countries? Nope. Let’s take Australia where the feral cat population is vastly growing which is causing harm to the native rodent population, but that’s been blamed on the feral population and are being culled and not the domestic cats living with humans.
[0]: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
[1]: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-...