The migratory bird Resurgence Initiative is a conservation effort aimed at reversing the declines of migratory bird populations in North America. Migratory birds are species like songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds, and raptors that migrate long distances between breeding and wintering grounds each year. Many migratory bird populations have suffered steep declines in recent decades due to a variety of threats, including habitat loss and degradation, collisions with buildings and other structures, and climate change.
Why was the Resurgence Initiative started?
The Resurgence Initiative was started in 2022 by a coalition of government agencies, conservation groups, industries, and other stakeholders in response to growing concerns about the declines in migratory bird populations. According to data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, migratory bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by nearly 30% since 1970. The goals of the Resurgence Initiative are to raise awareness about the threats facing migratory birds, implement conservation actions to reverse population declines, and ensure migratory birds continue providing ecological, economic, and social benefits for future generations.
Major partners in the Resurgence Initiative
The Resurgence Initiative brings together a diverse coalition of partners to conserve migratory birds across North America. Major partners include:
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Environment and Climate Change Canada
- National Audubon Society
- Ducks Unlimited
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- American Bird Conservancy
- The Nature Conservancy
- Bird Studies Canada
These and other partners are contributing funding, scientific expertise, outreach capabilities, and other resources to implement the Resurgence Initiative.
What are the key strategies of the Resurgence Initiative?
The Resurgence Initiative focuses on three key strategies to reverse migratory bird declines:
- Habitat restoration: Restoring and protecting habitat is crucial for migratory birds that rely on a network of breeding, migration stopover, and wintering sites. The initiative aims to enhance millions of acres of habitat across North America through partnerships, incentive programs for landowners, and policy initiatives.
- Threats reduction: Migratory birds face a range of human-caused threats along their migration routes and on their breeding and wintering grounds. The initiative promotes research and conservation actions to reduce threats like building collisions, outdoor cats, pesticides, communication towers, and more.
- People and partnerships: Broad collaboration among government agencies, corporations, tribes, landowners, and other citizens is needed to support migratory bird conservation. The initiative fosters partnerships and public engagement to build awareness and action for birds.
What are some key conservation actions?
Some of the key conservation actions planned under the Resurgence Initiative include:
- Protecting critical stopover and wintering habitats through acquisition, easements, and management agreements
- Improving habitat on public and private lands through restoration of wetlands, forests, grasslands, and riparian areas
- Expanding bird-friendly agriculture practices in partnership with farmers and ranchers
- Developing bird-friendly building guidelines to reduce collisions in cities
- Encouraging cat owners to implement strategies to reduce outdoor cat predation on birds
- Working with industry to reduce impacts from communication towers, oil pits, power lines, and other infrastructure
- Supporting research on high-priority migratory bird species to guide conservation efforts
Habitat Initiatives
Some major habitat conservation initiatives under the Resurgence program include:
- The Western Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Initiative, which will restore over 1 million acres of monarch butterfly breeding and migration habitat across the west.
- The Rice Stewardship Partnership, engaging rice growers to provide wetland habitat for birds on over 2 million acres of rice fields.
- The Gulf Coast Conservation Initiative, which aims to protect critical wetland and coastal habitats along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
- The Upper Mississippi River/Great Lakes Joint Venture, focused on restoring wetland, forest, and grassland habitats in the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes region.
What are some priority bird species under the Initiative?
While the Resurgence Initiative aims to benefit diverse groups of migratory birds, some priority species have been identified that represent high concern groups. Priority species include:
- Rusty Blackbird: This wetland species has declined by over 90% since the 1960s.
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo: Habitat loss in riparian areas has contributed to declines.
- Golden-winged Warbler: Habitat loss and hybridization with Blue-winged Warblers caused declines.
- Long-billed Curlew:habitat loss has caused steep declines in this large shorebird.
- Lesser Scaup: Wetland habitat loss across the Midwest and Canadian breeding grounds has driven declines.
Focused conservation efforts for these and other priority species will help restore their populations while benefiting many other migratory bird species sharing their habitats.
What ecological benefits do migratory birds provide?
Migratory birds provide many important ecological services that benefit natural ecosystems and humans. Some key benefits they provide include:
- Pest control: Many migratory birds like warblers, swallows, and flycatchers eat insects that can damage trees and agricultural crops.
- Pollination: Hummingbirds, orioles, and other migratory birds pollinate wild plants and crops as they feed on nectar.
- Seed dispersal: Migratory birds distribute plant seeds across landscapes as they migrate and forage.
- Nutrient cycling: Birds deposit nutrient-rich guano that fertilizes soils and waterways.
- Prey base: Migratory birds are an important food source to predatory birds like hawks and owls year-round.
Key Pollinator Species
Some migratory birds that are important pollinators include:
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Rufous Hummingbird
- Calliope Hummingbird
- Baltimore Oriole
- Hooded Oriole
These species pollinate wildflowers, shrubs, and trees across North America along their migration routes and on their breeding grounds. Protecting stopover habitats rich in native nectar sources is crucial to supporting healthy pollinator bird populations.
Key Insect-Eating Species
Some migratory birds that provide important insect pest-control services include:
- Barn Swallow
- Tree Swallow
- Purple Martin
- Yellow Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Willow Flycatcher
- Eastern Kingbird
- Western Kingbird
These aerial insectivores consume billions of flying insects annually, including many agricultural pests. Conserving grassland, shrubland, and wetland stopover habitats provides crucial food resources to sustain robust populations of insect-eating migratory birds.
What are the economic benefits of migratory birds?
In addition to ecological services, migratory birds provide billions of dollars in economic benefits to local economies across North America. Some examples include:
- Over $40 billion spent annually on birdwatching equipment and activities like festivals and tourism.
- $5 billion spent annually on hunting migratory game birds like ducks, geese, and doves.
- $4.5 billion in pest control services from insect-eating migratory birds.
- $1.6 billion in wild bird seed sales annually.
Healthy bird populations support vibrant economic activity through recreational opportunities for birders, hunters, and nature tourists. They also reduce economic losses to pest insects and support many jobs in the outdoor recreation and tourism industries.
Birdwatching Expenditures
Expense Category | Annual Expenditures |
---|---|
Optics | $12 billion |
Travel | $8 billion |
Books/Maps/Misc | $6 billion |
Membership Dues | $4 billion |
Feeders/Seed | $4 billion |
Birdwatchers spend over $40 billion annually on equipment, travel, and activities related to observing wild birds. This spending supports countless jobs and small businesses across North America.
What are the threats facing migratory birds?
Migratory birds face an array of threats along their migration routes and in their breeding and wintering habitats. Major threats include:
- Habitat loss and degradation – Agricultural expansion, urban sprawl, and other land use changes have reduced habitat.
- Windows collisions – U.S. and Canadian buildings cause up to 1 billion bird deaths annually from collisions.
- Communication towers – Tall towers with lighting kill millions of migrating birds annually.
- Cats – Outdoor and feral cats kill billions of birds in the U.S. every year.
- Pesticides – Pesticides reduce insect food supplies and cause direct toxicity.
- Climate change – Changing temperatures, precipitation, and seasons disrupt migrations and habitats.
Addressing these and other threats through research, policies, partnerships, and action on-the-ground will be key for migratory bird conservation efforts.
Top Causes of Bird Mortality
Threat | Annual Bird Deaths (U.S.) |
---|---|
Cats | 2.4 billion |
Windows | 599 million |
Vehicles | 214 million |
Power Lines | 25 million |
Communication Towers | 6.6 million |
Domestic cats are by far the biggest source of direct human-caused mortality for birds in the U.S. and Canada. Collisions with windows and vehicles also result in hundreds of millions of bird deaths each year.
What can individuals do to help migratory birds?
There are many ways individuals can take action to help support migratory bird conservation:
- Make windows bird-safe using treatments like screens, films, or tape patterns.
- Keep cats indoors or implement safer outdoor access (catios, leashes).
- Reduce pesticide use at home and advocate for pesticide reductions.
- Plant native species and provide habitat like bird feeders, nest boxes, and bird baths.
- Drink shade-grown coffee to protect wintering habitat.
- Purchase bird-friendly certified wood and sustainable seafood.
- Report bird mortality events to help target conservation efforts.
- Participate in citizen science projects that advance bird knowledge.
- Support conservation organizations financially or through volunteering.
Taking simple actions in our everyday lives can significantly benefit migratory birds and help achieve the goals of the Resurgence Initiative when multiplied across millions of people.
Conclusion
The migratory bird Resurgence Initiative represents an ambitious and collaborative effort to stem and reverse declines among North America’s migratory bird populations. Bringing together government agencies, conservation groups, industries, landowners, and other citizens, the initiative aims to implement research, habitat restoration, threat reduction, and outreach across the Western Hemisphere. With expanded habitat protections, reductions in major anthropogenic threats like building collisions and outdoor cats, and broad engagement from stakeholders across societies, the Resurgence Initiative hopes to achieve population increases for priority species and long-term stability for migratory birds overall. With their ecological, economic, and intrinsic value, ensuring flourishing migratory bird populations remains a key conservation priority now and into the future.