Citizen's Guide: Guidelines for Migratory Birds on Grasslands [I'd Love to Save the World]

The next set of guidelines for protecting migratory bird habitat focus on grasslands. As Nate pointed out in an earlier comment, grassland habitats (and therefore the birds that utilize them) are often overlooked as a habitat to protect. Our focus often turns to wetlands, forests, riparian zones, and coastal areas; thankfully, the Citizen's Guide leaves no stone, or blade of grass, unturned. As always, your thoughts and suggestions welcome and encouraged.

The Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation
Guidelines for Protecting Migratory Bird Habitat:
Guidelines for Conservation of Migratory Birds on Grasslands

1. Avoid fragmenting existing grassland tracts. The larger the grassland, the greater the number of area-sensitive species, such as Upland Sandpiper and Henslow's Sparrow, that will be able to nest successfully in the area.

2. When restoring grasslands, minimize the amount of edge habitat by designing roughly circular or square plots. Such programs should use native grasses and local seed sources. Determining the species that should occur at a given site may require research.

3. To benefit area-sensitive birds, we believe that plots should be no smaller than 125 acres, and preferably 250 acres or more. Fifty acres or less will benefit birds that are the least sensitive to area size (such as Dickcissel or Red-winged Blackbird).

4. If plots smaller than 50 acres are the only option, we recommend that they be as numerous as possible and no farther apart than one mile.

5. Monitor grass height. Eliminate woody vegetation that grows higher than native grasses.

6. Grassland evolved with regular burning. Learn about prescribed burns and evaluate the possibility of instituting this practice.

Authors:
Peter Dunne, Richard Kane, and Paul Kerlinger, New Jersey Audubon Society,
P.O. Box 693, Bernardsville, NJ 07294

This section has been excerpted in its entirety. Author information and article text current as of 1995.

Reference:
Dunne, P., R. Kane, and P. Kerlinger. 1995. Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation, Bonney, R., S. Carlson, and M. Fischer, eds. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

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Citizen's Guide: Guidelines for Backyard Habitat Conservation Projects [I'd Love to Save the World]

These first guidelines for protecting habitat are geared towards backyards. They may be the most direct action we can take: within reason, we can choose how to maintain our property. The guidelines presented here are straight-forward and effective ways to improve your backyard for the birds. My comments follow.

The Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation
Guidelines for Protecting Migratory Bird Habitat:
Guidelines for Backyard Habitats

1. Grow native plants that provide fruit or seeds.

2. Woodlots with fallen limbs and leaves, dead plant material, and other woodland debris harbor the insects that migratory birds thrive on. Leave as much dead plant material as possible on the land (without endangering your home, of course).

3. Seek alternatives to chemical pesticides. Use biological controls for unwanted insects and vegetation.

4. Reduce the risk of bird predation by keeping pet cats indoors. Refrain from putting out table scraps, which will attract predators such as raccoons.

5. Invite neighboring landowners to join your backyard effort. Plan cooperatively!

Authors:
Peter Dunne, Richard Kane, and Paul Kerlinger, New Jersey Audubon Society,
P.O. Box 693, Bernardsville, NJ 07294

This section has been excerpted in its entirety. Author information and article text current as of 1995.

Reference:
Dunne, P., R. Kane, and P. Kerlinger. 1995. Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation, Bonney, R., S. Carlson, and M. Fischer, eds. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

My comments: the first four guidelines are fairly well known these days, and they do two things essential for migrating birds: provide a safe place to forage for safe foods, steps that are pretty easy to implement. In fact, we've been improving our 4-acre lot ever since we bought it in 2002, adding berry-producing shrubs like spicebush, winterberry, and serviceberry and seed-producing flowers Purple Coneflower, Labrador Violet, and Helianthus. And it's working, we see sparrows foraging in the flower beds and songbirds in the branches of the shrubs. We don't use pesticides. If weeds are removed, it's by hand. Insects, with the exception of Japanese Beetles, are welcome to forage. We do periodically put out hormone traps, and we hand-pick them when they're out of control (fun activity for kids!).

Our two cats are entirely indoor cats, except that one time a visitor let Tazzie out because "he looked like he wanted to go out." Every once in a while we get a black-and-white visitor who camps out by the pond, and I never have figured out where it comes from. I've also never succeeded in catching the thing (and I'm not sure what I'd do if I did). To date, as far as I can tell, it's been focused on insects in the tall grass.

Anyway, it's the fifth guideline that I find fascinating. Though we do have neighbors, none are really close by. Our hill is pretty well forested and I'm not entirely sure that persuading our neighbors to landscape differently, if needed, is the best use of my time, there's probably only so much of me they can stand (more on that in a future post).

But I did talk with two landowners who had undertaken a cooperative effort. It was all relatively new at the time so I can't comment on how successful their project was. Maybe, eventually, their small island in Suburbia will become an oasis to passing migrants. But I was really impressed with their cooperative spirit. Isn't the stereotype that neighbors argue and bicker over . . . I don't know, borrowed tools? Length of the grass? Dog poop in the yard?

Not these guys, they were working together. Well, not really together, but using compatible methods to reach a common goal. Though there was no clear division between their yards, you could see the different approaches. One was more controlled and focused on shrubs and trees, the other more flowery and wild looking. Two unique approaches, each allowing their individual personalities to shine through, and both focused on birds and wildlife.

What do you think, would you try a multifamily effort in landscaping? Would it work in your area? As always, your thoughts and suggestions welcome and encouraged.

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Citizen's Guide: Guidelines For Protecting Migratory Bird Habitat [I'd Love to Save the World]

OK, we're through the introduction of the Citizen's Guide; now we get to the action items. Following this introduction to the importance of habitat we will, in upcoming posts, learn how to protect migratory bird habitat in our backyards, on grasslands, in forested areas, on farmlands, and how to plan for conservation-oriented land-use.

The Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation
Guidelines for Protecting Migratory Bird Habitat

Introduction
To survive, birds need habitat. Exactly what type and how much depends on each species' food preferences, foraging strategies, and nest site requirements. Some kinds of birds do fine in suburban and even urban areas. But species whose habitat requirements are specific -- in particular, birds that require large tracts of woodland or grassland - are having more difficulty. For example, the Swainson's Warbler, a bird of southeastern bottomland hardwood forests, requires about 25 acres of habitat per breeding pair. And a single pair usually will not nest unless other pairs inhabit the area, too. Maintaining a viable population of these birds requires a forested tract of perhaps 5,000 acres.

For species with specific habitat requirements, we must maintain suitable habitat in the face of human activity. And the challenge is heightened by the fact that unlike humans, birds do not pay attention to land ownership. Because their habitats cross legal boundaries, habitat protection plans must too.

Is protecting habitat for migratory birds a realistic goal for the 21st century? You bet! Many amateur birders, conservationists, agency personnel, and private landowners support conservation of bird populations and their habitats before species reach critically low levels -- at which point intervention becomes expensive and controversial. Maintaining habitat can and does occur on the local, state, regional, national, and even international levels.

To be successful, habitat maintenance should follow several guiding principles. These can be applied to conservation of breeding range, wintering grounds, and migratory corridors. All land managers, public and private, should find these principles helpful in guiding their thinking about how to enhance habitat.

As you go about your migratory bird conservation projects -- whether in your own backyard or in a wider community - review these principles from time to time. They will help keep your project on track.

Authors:
Peter Dunne, Richard Kane, and Paul Kerlinger, New Jersey Audubon Society,
P.O. Box 693, Bernardsville, NJ 07294

This section has been excerpted in its entirety. Author information and article text current as of 1995.

Reference:
Dunne, P., R. Kane, and P. Kerlinger. 1995. Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation, Bonney, R., S. Carlson, and M. Fischer, eds. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

As always, your thoughts and suggestions welcome and encouraged.

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Citizen's Guide: The Solution: Partners In Flight [I'd Love to Save the World]

And so we come to the end of the introduction, happily on a high note: although there are numerous challenges that face migratory birds on their Latin American wintering grounds, on their migratory routes, and on their breeding grounds, there is a massive effort underway to keep common birds common. My comments about this 1995 document follow.

The Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation
The Solution: Partners in Flight

But here is the good news. Most species of neotropical migrants are still common, and very few species are endangered or even threatened. We are concerned about declining species because we want to avoid reaching a crisis situation -- we want to maintain populations while they are still healthy. We therefore have the opportunity to conserve bird diversity in North America without putting an additional strain on our economic and social institutions.

Recognizing that conserving neotropical migratory birds is too big of a problem for any one agency, organization, state, or even country, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation launched a new program in 1990 called Partners in Flight. This massive program is not an organization. It has no single address or employees. Rather, it is a cooperative effort among numerous state and federal government agencies, non-governmental conservation organizations, and private industry. The goal of Partners in Flight is to improve our understanding of neotropical migrants, identify species most at risk, and develop and carry out cooperative plans to protect their habitat.

Already great strides have been made in identifying the bird species needing the most help. A species prioritization scheme, available from the Colorado Bird Observatory, has shown which species are at greatest risk in every part of North America. This complex scheme takes into account many factors, including global abundance, breeding and winter distributions, and threats to habitats on wintering and breeding grounds. Identifying the species that are most vulnerable shows conservationists which habitats most need protection or restoration.

Progress also has been made toward developing regional and national migratory bird habitat conservation plans. These plans are based on the concept of management at the landscape level. In this context, "landscape" refers to a large area such as you might see while flying in an airplane, an area with a mosaic of habitat patches. Each of these habitats predictably harbors certain bird species, and individual birds of each species use habitat not just within their own breeding territory, but also in neighboring habitat patches. So the spacial arrangement of habitat patches, as well as the quality of the habitats, is important to birds.

Because landscape-level management crosses political and economic boundaries, the plans call for public, private, and intergovernmental cooperation. Indeed, Partners in Flight is a model of partnerships for conservation. Participants include more than 15 federal agencies, over 60 state and provincial agencies, 16 companies representing the forest products industry, and more than 30 private conservation groups.

There is one more important partner: you. As someone concerned about birds and their habitat, you can make a big difference. This booklet explains exactly how you can become involved in Partners in Flight -- because every activity descried will lead toward migratory bird conservation.

Many Partners in Flight contacts are listed on page 32. For an even more complete list of contacts, write for a copy of the Partners in Flight newsletter (ordering information is on the inside back cover). The newsletter will also keep you up to date on all Partners in Flight activities.

Authors:
Russell Greenberg and Susan Lumpkin, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008

Arthur Weissman, Green Seal, 1250 23rd St. NW, Washington, DC 20037

This section has been excerpted in its entirety. Author information and article text current as of 1995.

Reference:
Greenberg, R., S. Lumpkin, and A. Weissman. 1995. Citizen's Guide to Migratory Bird Conservation, Bonney, R., S. Carlson, and M. Fischer, eds. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

As always, your thoughts and suggestions welcome and encouraged, but here are a few of mine, which are naturally open to your comments, too.

I believe this document is extremely well written, and this piece concentrates on several powerful messages. There's the proclamation of a broad, collaborative effort. There's the direct appeal for individuals to accept their role in conservation. There's the complex methodology used to identify focal species. There's the recognition of the necessity of landscape-level management, and the acknowledgment of imperative cooperation across multiple boundaries. And it's presented in a manner fitting the target audience: anyone who expresses an interest in birds, whether they're trained ornithologists, a novice bird-watcher, or anyone in between.

Of course, edits need to be made here, mostly updates -- surely PIF has changed since '95. How many organizations, and from what sector (not-for-profit, industry, government, non-gov, etc)? Are the same common birds in '95 still common in 2009, or are some now listed as threatened or special concern? I realize this is an intro piece, but perhaps a progress report, in the form of a line or two where appropriate, would be useful.

What say you?

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