Havens for migratory birds

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are mounting efforts to lure some of the tens of millions of birds
that migrate through the Gulf region away from the spilled oil.

Major flyways Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative

• USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation
Most birds that follow migration paths
Service will pay some Gulf area farmers and
along the East Coast, the Mississippi
ranchers to flood their lands to provide
Valley and the Central Plains
alternative habitat for migrating birds
cross over the Gulf of Mexico
en route to winter • Funds for the $20 million program will come
quarters in the CANADA Hudson from existing conservation programs; the USDA
West Indies, Central Bay hopes to be reimbursed later by BP
and South America
• Up to 150,000 acres in Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri
and Florida could be affected (see map below)
Pacific
U.S.
Ocean
Other efforts
• The Fish and Wildlife Service is building berms
to keep oil away from habitats
CAN.
• May also try to divert birds from badly oiled
Atlantic
Mexico Ocean U.S. areas with fireworks, horns, plastic streamers or
Gulf of reflective tape and cover some areas with plastic;
Mexico Mex. useful only in smaller areas
• Initiatives are being funded by money from the BP
Cuba S.A. spill fund given to the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation (a nonprofit founded by Congress
Detail in 1984 to restore wildlife species, habitats)

Lands that could become safe areas under

Avian travelers the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative

More than 300 species of birds

pass through the Gulf, and some
are more likely to change their Mo. Va. Atlantic
habits than others; here are Ken. Ocean
three examples of types N.C.
of migratory birds Central Mississippi
flyway flyway Tenn. Atlantic flyway

Ark. S.C.
Ala.
Ga.
Miss.
La.
Texas Sea bird
Brown pelican
Gulf of • 6.5 ft. (2 m) wingspan
Prairie traveler Mexico Fla.
• Coastal bird, rarely found
Greater away from the sea
white-fronted goose
• Birds on Atlantic and Gulf
• Long-distance migrant coasts tend to stay there
Shore bird year-round
• Travels from nesting Pectoral sandpiper
grounds on Arctic tundra • Some East Coast
marshes to South • Extremely long distance migrant; populations fly south,
American grasslands round trip can be 18,000 mi. (28,968 km) wintering along east coast
• Travels from North American Arctic breeding of Florida
Eating habits
grounds as far as southern South America
During migration, eats Eating habits
grains on harvested Eating habits Dives for fish,
agricultural lands and Wades in shallow water, eating crustaceans sometimes crustaceans
freshwater wetland grasses and other aquatic invertebrates

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USGS, Graphic: Pat Carr, Lee Hulteng
National Audubon Society, Seattle Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation © 2010 MCT