Birdcraft Sanctuary was founded in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1914, and the Connecticut Audubon Society describes it as one of the first private songbird sanctuaries in the United States. It is a National Historic Landmark. Its creator was Mabel Osgood Wright, a writer and conservationist who had already spent years pressing for laws to protect birds. The sanctuary did not start the state's bird-protection effort so much as give it a home. Wright helped found the Connecticut Audubon Society in 1898, sixteen years earlier, and the society still operates. Its history page lists centers and sanctuaries across the state, along with an advocacy program in Hartford that has run since 1974.
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