Presentation Recap: The CW Region – A Critical Migratory Bird Corridor

Currently, over 100 million of North America’s nocturnal migrating birds move north through the Chicago Wilderness Region in the spring; then they do it again, heading south in the fall in even larger numbers, joined by birds born that summer making their first trip to their wintering grounds. This massive scale, twice a year, round-trip transect makes the greater Chicagoland area a critical corridor.

From extreme weather events related to the collision of nearly 1,000 migrating birds at McCormick Place over one night to the massive wildfires destroying over 45 million acres of bird habitat in the boreal forests, the impacts of climate change, habitat loss, and man-made structures have been alarming. And the numbers don’t lie! Most migrant bird species are already experiencing significant population declines, based on newly published long-term studies.

This Chicago Wilderness Café, presented by the Bird Conservation Network (BCN), explores the question: How should our current landscape, both managed natural lands and human spaces, be made safer and more ‘user-friendly’ for stopover migrants and breeding species alike? It’s demonstrable that lowering human source mortality risks within the CW region, plus implementing additions to the CW natural lands inventory and improving management practices can do that. These improvements are especially important amid the growing impact of climate change — where the timing of food source availability is clearly disconnecting from these birds’ timing as they travel through the region.

Café Session Leaders: Bob Fisher, BCN Communications Chair; Eric Secker, Past President of BCN.