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Throughout 2023 ̽����ѡ continued its rich tradition of advocating for and securing the space, clean air, and clean water that birds and people need to live and thrive. ̽����ѡ staff, chapters, and partners worked on the ground to protect and restore vital habitats and natural spaces. Read on to learn more about ̽����ѡ’s most important habitat, conservation, and scientific achievements across the hemisphere this year!

Celebrated the groundbreaking of the largest single-ecosystem restoration project in U.S. history

In August, the State of Louisiana broke ground on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the largest single ecosystem restoration project in U.S. history that will reconnect the Mississippi River with its wetlands. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion will deliver much-needed sediment to restore the wetlands in Barataria Basin, strengthening tens of thousands of acres of wetlands, which will buffer nearby communities from storms and provide habitat for iconic birds like Roseate Spoonbills and Bald Eagles.

This monumental milestone is decades in the making. ̽����ѡ staff contributed over 15 years of advocacy, science, and public engagement to help finally bring this priority project to fruition, including driving over 25,000 of the 51,518 public comments submitted to the state in support of this project.

Certified the 100th bird-friendly habitat in the Conservation Ranching program

̽����ѡ Conservation Ranching is ̽����ѡ’s flagship grassland habitat effort, a land certification program that works in partnership with ranchers to conserve habitat for grassland birds. Badger Creek Ranch in Colorado is the 100th ranch to receive the ̽����ѡ Certified bird-friendly distinction.

In 2023, 80 pairs of Piping Plovers that nested in the Great Lakes region, the highest number of pairs since being listed as endangered and eight more pairs than last year. This achievement is particularly exciting as the population has been relatively stagnant around 70-75 pairs in recent years. The bump in pair numbers is due, in part, to the record fledgling numbers from last year, demonstrating the carry-over success of a productive 2022 season. Importantly, reaching 80 pairs brings the population that much closer to the 150-pair recovery goal, a milestone that has reinvigorated recovery partners. The goal of the recovery effort is to restore and maintain a viable plover population within the Great Lakes and eventual removal of the population from the Endangered Species list.

̽����ѡ partnered with the Cocopah Tribe to secure $5.5 million in public and private funds to embark on restoration of a significant area in the Colorado River Delta on their reservation in southern Arizona. The result will be improved habitat for birds and other wildlife and access for the Tribe to culturally significant native plants that have been hard to find in recent decades due to degraded river conditions. The funds will allow the Tribe to transform more than 400 acres in the Colorado River floodplain by removing invasive, non-native vegetation, planting native trees, shrubs and grasses, and using their water rights to sustain the restored area in the absence of Colorado River flows. The funding will also support development of a Cocopah Tribal youth corps to engage young people in the project and rebuild connections to the Colorado River. 

Restored critical marsh habitats across New York and Connecticut for Saltmarsh Sparrow

Last summer, . The $4 million project wasn't a culmination, however, but a kick-off. Immediately, the area became a hub for scientific research. Groups from the University of Connecticut, Yale University, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maritime Aquarium, and more jumped at the opportunity to conduct research in the restored area. Their investigations will reveal important information about nesting birds, vegetation growth, and water health, and will inform future management activities.

Farther south in Hook Creek Park in Queens, New York, Saltmarsh Sparrows got a newly restored habitat when NYC Parks, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, neighborhood activists, and ̽����ѡ New York worked together on . The result is a healthier marsh that can keep up with sea level rise and provide essential nesting and feeding habitat to birds.

Contributed vital information to important planning and restoration work for the coming decades across many states, including Louisiana and South Carolina

The ̽����ѡ-led Bald Eagle Habitat Suitability model was included in Louisiana’s  to evaluate a future with and without coastal restoration projects. The study was also published in Restoration Ecology. Overall, the study helps demonstrate that coastal restoration projects, such as sediment diversions and barrier reef construction, will help create more land and healthy habitat for the eagle to nest and forage. This science has been used to help advocate for continued investments into projects in the Coastal Master Plan.

South Carolina released the  which will guide state investment in flood mitigation and resilience projects to protect people and property in the state. The plan took two years to complete with input from ̽����ѡ South Carolina and other industry partners and nonprofits. In this document science-based recommendations and plans include flood mitigation through green infrastructure and nature-based design, electrical grid evaluation, and watershed-based resilience planning. In addition to a comprehensive vulnerability assessment, the plan recognizes impacts to coastal priority bird species, and recognizes the role of native plants for habitat and flood mitigation.

, the , and partners at the , and  have completed a significant restoration project at Powderhorn Lake Forest Preserve, the most biodiverse area in the city of Chicago restoring more than 100 acres of wetlands and reconnecting Powderhorn Lake to Wolf Lake, creating improved habitats for birds, fish and other wildlife to thrive. Nearly $1.2 million of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds were directed to Powderhorn Lake, resulting in the restoration of 192 acres of wetland habitat, 630 linear feet of stream habitat, and 45 acres of native vegetation.

Installed Motus stations across the hemisphere and tracked So. Many. Birds.

Across the hemisphere, , are receiving pings from tracking devices on birds. Receiving towers pick up radio signals from any bird with a radio tag that flies within nine miles of the site. The data is automatically uploaded to the internet, where anyone can view it. Motus technology has the potential to track individual birds, where they spend their time, and whether they encounter difficulties. It's also an amazing tool to connect people with nature.

A Motus station at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary recorded an American Redstart tagged in Jamaica as part of a long-term study investigating the connection between areas where they spend their winters, spring departure timing, and migration. While some American Redstarts overwinter in South Florida, visitors at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary usually see them during spring and fall migration in the old-growth cypress forest.

Tracked a cuckoo named Hummus across multiple ̽����ѡ-managed areas as it migrated south for the winter

Radio telemetry data from Motus towers in California, Arizona, and Mexico indicates that Hummus has passed through at least six different protected areas on its southward migration, dramatically illustrating the need for land and riparian conservation. Those places include the ̽����ѡ Kern River Preserve in California where Hummus was first banded and outfitted with its transmitter earlier this summer by staff from the Southern Sierra Research Station and ̽����ѡ’s Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in Arizona. ̽����ѡ was able to track Hummus over nine days and 900 miles, but .

Launched new NOAA-funded coastal resilience projects in partnership with local communities in the Carolinas and on the Great Lakes

What does the industrial city of Gary, Indiana share with the rural lowland communities of coastal North Carolina and South Carolina? Flooding, degraded wetlands, and a history of underfunding and other inequitable policies—and, as it turns out, secretive marsh birds like Least Bittern. Because of the degradation of wetlands and beach habitats, the coastal regions in these three states no longer adequately protect nearby communities from storms and rising sea and lake levels. To address these issues, ̽����ѡ launched a new suite of climate resilience planning projects in partnership with coastal communities in these states, supported by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Published a conservation plan for Parita Bay in Panama

In February 2023, the Panama ̽����ѡ Society with support from ̽����ѡ Americas and the Blue Natural Heritage project launched the Plan de Conservación para los humedales de la Bahía de Parita (Wetlands Conservation Plan for Parita Bay, Panama) which identifies the main conservation objectives at this internationally Important Bird Area. Panama ̽����ѡ Society's and ̽����ѡ Americas' staff are currently disseminating the conservation plan among regional stakeholders and government authorities. This and other complementary research will help establish a baseline for site conditions, inform policy, and management processes to impact and improve the management of marine-coastal ecosystems, as well as develop the carbon market and help support local coastal communities with the resulting income.

Shorebirds are some of the most vulnerable species reliant on saline lake ecosystems. An important partnership of ̽����ѡ, Point Blue Conservation, Sageland Collaborative, 11 western states, and wildlife refuges have embarked on a multi-year project to determine the abundance and trends of shorebirds across some 200 sites as part of the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey. In 2023, more than 300 participants completed the first full year of surveys (spring and fall migration) under the extremes of “weather whiplash”— peak mega-drought followed by record-breaking snowpack and runoff. During the latest migration window (August 2023), nearly 700,000 shorebirds were counted at approximately 195 sites. Preliminary data revealed that sites like Great Salt Lake, Lake Abert, Lahontan Valley, Mono Lake, Owens Lake, and Salton Sea continue to be the most important stopover sites for shorebirds in the interior portion of the Pacific Americas Flyway in North America – bolstering their importance to migratory shorebirds and ̽����ѡ’s focus on protecting this network of habitats. 

Nesting Piping Plovers are most common in North Carolina on the Outer Banks. The southernmost pair of these round, sand-gray shorebirds usually find a summer home on Figure Eight Island, but habitat change brought a pair to ̽����ѡ’s Lea-Hutaff Island sanctuary this summer, the first Piping Plover nest on this undeveloped barrier island since 2014. The nest had a lot to contend with—from ghost crabs, grackle, and heat to disturbances from people, dogs, and storms—as our trail camera showed. This is why our coastal team protects and manages sites like this one, so that birds can successfully raise their young.

̽����ѡ North Carolina staff, partners, and volunteers visited nesting colonies across the coast to band thousands of terns, Black Skimmers, and American Oystercatchers throughout the spring and summer. As part of this effort, ̽����ѡ staff put the first field-readable bands on Royal and Sandwich Terns in the state, which will allow them to gather insights into where and when these birds are moving around the coast. This work is already paying off in the form of re-sightings later in the summer—one in Maryland and the other in New Jersey.

and back

̽����ѡ continues to work with private landowners to manage habitat for Golden-winged Warblers, and a new partnership with the NC Wildlife Resource Commission and researcher Darin J. McNeil of the University of Kentucky, has already yielded a closer glimpse into the bird’s lifecycle. Earlier this year, biologists re-caught two Golden-winged Warblers in mist nets in Madison and Yancey Counties—the same individuals that ̽����ѡ scientists caught and tagged with a tracking device in the same location last spring. The ultimate goal is to learn more about how this rare songbird moves across its range, and what threats might be causing its population to dwindle.

Surveyed Panama Bay, Panama using audio recordings of local avifauna

This year the ̽����ѡ Americas team collected more than 150,000 audio recordings from 19 mangrove sites in Panama Bay, Panama. Now ̽����ѡ scientists are using supervised and unsupervised machine learning frameworks to process these recordings and gain insights into the species that occur there, the factors that influence their occurrence, and their potential responses to global change.

̽����ѡ Great Lakes and partners at U.S Fish and Wildlife, Detroit Zoo and University of Minnesota, released four federally endangered Great Lakes piping plover chicks at the Cat Island Restoration Site, in Lower Green Bay. This is the first year the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service has released captive Great Lakes piping plovers outside of the state of Michigan–the population's stronghold–and the first time in the state of Wisconsin. ̽����ѡ Great Lakes coordinates staff, partners, and volunteers to monitor Piping Plovers at the Cat Island Restoration Site every day, including holidays, from April through August.

This summer, ̽����ѡ Alaska launched , a project following American Golden-Plovers that were equipped with GPS Argos tags at Teshekpuk Lake Special  Area in the Western Arctic. (Tullik is the Iñupiaq word for plover.) It is part of a study overseen by Manomet, Inc. and the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Alaska Region, with assistance from ̽����ѡ Alaska, ̽����ѡ's Boreal Conservation Program, ̽����ѡ Americas, and the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative. Tullik’s Odyssey tells the story of the American Golden Plover’s  journey along the southbound migration route from Alaska to Canada, the Atlantic Coast, and South America.

̽����ѡ South Carolina worked to acquire and protect just over 800 acres of high priority and high conservation value land in South Carolina through three tracts of land. The Arant Property protected 400 acres of biologically diverse Congaree River Front adjacent to Congaree National Park. 413 acres were added to ̽����ѡ's Beidler Forest through the acquisition of Dean Swamp, protecting more bottomland hardwood forest which is home to Prothonotary Warblers and Swallow-tailed Kites.   

̽����ѡ Great Plains crafted a comprehensive strategy, including hiring a Prescribed Burn Coordinator and hosting a series of workshops designed for local landowners, aimed to raise awareness of the invaluable role prescribed fire plays as a habitat management tool. The advantages of prescribed burns extend far beyond the immediate ecological impact. One of the most significant beneficiaries of this management tool is the diverse community of grassland birds, such as Western Meadowlark, Bobolink, and Short-eared Owl, that rely on these habitats for their survival.

Supported more than 100 million acres of proposed Indigenous Protected Areas and Marine Conservation Areas in the Boreal

̽����ѡ continues to work with each of its Indigenous partners as their land and marine conservation efforts progress through the complexities of establishing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and Marine Conservation Areas. This year ̽����ѡ participated in meetings within six communities across Northern Ontario facilitated by the Mushkegowuk Council. ̽����ѡ’s scientific data about birds of special importance to the area is expected to be incorporated into IPCA proposal(s) for the region and to support a massive proposed Hudson-James Bay National Marine Conservation Area.

̽����ѡ’s Connecticut and New York regional office, in partnership with ̽����ѡ Vermont, launched the ̽����ѡ Forester Training and Endorsement Program to help create high-quality forest habitat at scale. Caitlin Cusack, newly-endorsed forester with the Vermont Land Trust, has already seen results. In conducting a timber harvest, Caitlin created several openings that brought sunlight to the forest floor. This in turn helped plants regenerate in the understory, creating new places for birds to nest, forage, and seek cover. Within the first year, Caitlin saw an Eastern Wood-Pewee singing right on the edge of the largest opening! Since then, she has heard or seen Mourning Warblers, Ovenbirds, Wood Thrush, all species which nest and forage in the lower canopy layers.

Celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of the Seabird Institute and the 100^th Anniversary of ̽����ѡ Texas’s coastal program

This year the Seabird Institute , restoring Atlantic Puffins to Maine's coast and expanding that expertise beyond to seabird conservation efforts around the world.  To mark the occasion, ̽����ѡ published an oral history feature story and video featuring many of the original “puffineers” involved in launching the project. In Maine this summer, the Project Puffin Visitor Center , and a mother-daughter artist team created an immersive, interactive exhibit that simulates the experience of standing on Eastern Egg Rock, where Project Puffin began.

, education, and outreach across the state of Texas, and has launched a new, online tool showcasing how birds across the Western hemisphere rely on the Texas Gulf Coast. In 1923, ̽����ѡ initiated its first rookery island leases, beginning a century of conservation partnerships and stewardship. The  tool allow users to explore and discover birds along the vibrant Texas coast, as well as the critical impacts that could be caused by increasing sea level rise.

Secured Deepwater Horizon funding for Indigenous Guardians in Manitoba

The Deepwater Horizon Trustees charged with restoring the Gulf Coast and its species after the BP oil spill proposed and ultimately agreed to fund a project to help migratory seabirds recover. The $5.3 million project will enable Indigenous Guardians to protect and manage nesting Common Terns at key colonies in Manitoba. Through hands-on stewardship and monitoring, the project aims to help 2,000 nesting pairs of Common Terns produce more baby birds that survive to fledge from their nests. During the BP oil spill, Common Terns were among the hardest hit migratory seabirds, killed by oil exposure in the Gulf of Mexico on their way to their nesting grounds in Canada. Many of these birds fly long distances throughout the hemisphere, so to help them recover we must think outside of the Gulf region and beyond US borders. 

Released the Birds and Transmission report

In August, ̽����ѡ released the report Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, which calls for rapidly expanding electric transmission to meet climate goals while also protecting wildlife habitat. In the report, ̽����ѡ shares science-based solutions for minimizing risks to birds and outlines how collaborative planning efforts can responsibly upgrade the grid. 

In September, Pattern Energy officially started construction on the SunZia Transmission project, which will span 550 miles between central New Mexico and south-central Arizona, making it one of the largest clean energy infrastructure projects in American history. ̽����ѡ Southwest’s Executive Director Jonathan Hayes and New Mexico Policy Director Judy Calman attended the groundbreaking event. As the Birds and Transmission report notes, SunZia is an example of how ̽����ѡ’s direct engagement can have a beneficial impact on transmission deployment. ̽����ѡ convened an informal group of NGOs and provided guidance on best practices related to routing, siting of towers, installation, and tower design. By working effectively with developers and communities, ̽����ѡ was able to  and positively impact the approval process. 

̽����ѡ Rockies and the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute co-created the Wyoming Naturalist Program three years ago. Now, they have trained and certified 64 naturalists who have completed 2,454 hours of conservation service in Wyoming. Last spring, Wyoming Naturalists filled all the survey routes of the new Intermountain Shorebird Surveys in Wyoming. Naturalists completed training for this new program, then surveyed eight locations during spring shorebird migration.

At the Montezuma ̽����ѡ Center, state-endangered Black Terns were spotted nesting in the marshes for the first time ever! Across the greater Montezuma Wetlands Complex, 96 nesting Black Terns were counted across eight marshes, the highest count since 1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation worked for years to clear the marsh of invasive Purple Loosestrife, eventually succeeding with the help of leaf-eating beetles and root-eating weevils. Now, Montezuma ̽����ѡ Center staff and volunteers are helping clear a new threat: invasive water chestnut. The efforts—and the return of the terns—provide great opportunities for young people to get involved.

̽����ѡ California completed the second year of a Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership (MBCP) multi-year study to examine drought impacts on shorebirds. The MBCP, along with other partners, captured more than 100 shorebirds and deployed 26 Motus tags to collect physiological data and to track movements across the landscape in periods of drought. With this data, ̽����ѡ California scientists hope to learn more about how shorebirds respond to drought and inform decision makers on when and where to provision habitat when water resources are limited. Nearly a quarter of the tagged birds were detected in the Alaskan Copper River Delta, and many birds moved between the Sacramento Valley, Grasslands Ecological Area, and coastal sites near Tomales Bay, California.

This breeding season, ̽����ѡ California reports that its team successfully protected 100 percent of Tricolored Blackbird breeding colonies on farms enrolled in Regional Conservation Partnership Program in the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin, where the majority of Tricolored Blackbirds nest. This means that ̽����ѡ protected approximately 214,000 adult birds, their nests, and young in 12 colonies on 10 properties. This count aligns with the reported increase in the population estimated during the 2022 Triennial Statewide Survey. The largest colony this year was estimated at over 50,000 individuals, the largest colony in more than five years.

Over the past three years, research undertaken by ̽����ѡ Great Plains in partnership with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has revealed fascinating and previously unknown migratory behaviors of American Woodcock at the extreme western edge of their continental range. The findings from this work were recently published in the peer-reviewed international journal Wader Study. This study, titled “,” describes the migratory behaviors of woodcock as they travel through (or remain for the summer) in Nebraska. Using advanced GPS satellite transmitters, researchers were able to track timberdoodles both within the state and beyond as they traversed the continent. 

For the first time in almost a century, Floridians are seeing a lot of flamingos. Blown in by Hurricane Idalia, American Flamingos have landed as far north as St. Marks Wildlife Refuge all the way south to Collier County and the Florida Keys, including a record sighting in Alachua County. Additional birds touched down in Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, and more. Water quality and conservations efforts are critical to keeping wading bird populations strong: Both 2018 and 2020 proved to be strong nesting years for most of the Everglades’ wading birds. As Roseate Spoonbill numbers have recovered, as an example, they have spread their range farther north, and now are regularly seen in places like Tampa Bay. ̽����ѡ Florida staff hope that through additional restoration and conservation efforts, the U.S. will see a similar recovery for the equally pink American Flamingo.

̽����ѡ secured a second year of funding from the Dorrance Family Foundation, in partnership with Buena Vista and San Diego ̽����ѡ chapters, to restore Mission Bay coastline in San Diego, California. Additional funding from the foundation went to community partners within the Buena Vista Lagoon and Mission Bay watersheds. More than 1,000 community members participated in community restoration events, 550 coastal advocates took action to protect Ridgway’s Rail habitat in Mission Bay, and project leads completed the initial design and permitting for the Wetland Reserve along Buena Vista Lagoon.

Despite nest destruction from Hurricane Ian, resilience proved to be the theme of the 2022-23 Bald Eagle nesting season, according to end-of-season data compiled by the ̽����ѡ EagleWatch program. Across the state, volunteers documented 148 nests lost to the Category 5 storm. Typically, when an eagle pair loses a nest, they simply rebuild in another suitable tree nearby. In the storm’s path, however, suitable trees were also lost. With few other options, many eagle pairs rebuilt their nests in spindly trees with bare branches and little foliage. According to EagleWatch data, roughly 70 percent of the eagle pairs that lost their nests rebuilt in the same season. From those rebuilt nests, more than 100 chicks have fledged.

Helped set bird-focused priorities for sage-grouse ecosystem restoration in Eastern Washington

In 2020, wildfires burned more than 500,000 acres of shrub-steppe habitat in core Greater Sage- and Sharp-tailed Grouse breeding areas, furthering imperiling these state endangered species. 

After successfully advocating in 2021 to fund landscape-level conservation and restoration in Washington’s shrub-steppe lands ̽����ѡ Washington has served in an advisory and stakeholder role on the project, ensuring that the needs of birds are strongly represented in this process. In the coming months the project will circulate a draft strategy for Tribal consultation and public review; the strategy includes a newly defined set of spatial priorities for the region based on dynamic mapping sources and a set of ambitious goals and related actions for shrub-steppe ecosystem health and resilience in the Columbia Plateau.

The Arizona Important Bird Areas (IBA) program wrapped up another 12 months of work and accomplishments that included bird monitoring, research, habitat improvement projects and developing plans for future efforts, all with the goal of ensuring these vital landscapes continue to provide habitat to native bird species like Pinyon Jay, western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Elegant Trogon, Lucy’s Warbler, and many others. To make that work happen, volunteers donated more than 6,000 hours and 23,000 miles in 2023. Tucson ̽����ѡ played an instrumental statewide role in these efforts, while Arizona’s seven other chapters helped manage the IBAs closest to them.

The Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust was established in January 2023 to enhance water quantity and water quality for Great Salt Lake and its wetlands, as well as protect and restore wetlands and habitats to benefit the hydrology of Great Salt Lake. The $40 million trust is co-managed by ̽����ѡ and The Nature Conservancy; in November, the trust announced its first grants for projects that will protect and enhance more than 13,000 acres of wetlands along the eastern and southern shores of Great Salt Lake.  

To benefit the Great Salt Lake, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to donate more than 5,700 water shares (a little more than 20,000 acre-feet of water) in the North Point Consolidated Irrigation Company to the state of Utah, in partnership with ̽����ѡ and The Nature Conservancy’s co-led Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust. The donation, believed to be the largest ever permanent donation to benefit the Great Salt Lake, ensures water will continue to flow to the lake and preserve critical shoreline and wetland habitat in Farmington Bay. 

The Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir project broke ground this February. This high-impact project is part of the $20 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. In support of the project over the past decade, ̽����ѡ spearheaded a significant legislative campaign in Florida to secure state support, used ̽����ѡ science to influence project design, and advocated for construction funding from both state and Congressional appropriations and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Supported regenerative agriculture in Colombia

̽����ѡ Americas published Cattle ranching for birds: A song for sustainability which the Cattle Ranching Associations in Colombia are using to plan project implementation. The playbook shares best practices and information that can be used in almost any farm in Latin America and the Caribbean, regions where the transition to sustainable cattle ranching practices is urgently needed to stop deforestation, and overall environmental degradation.

Launched the first projects from Conserva Aves

Conserva Aves, a partnership between ̽����ѡ, Birdlife International, American Bird Conservancy, and REDLAC (Network of Environmental Funds in Latin America and the Caribbean), launched its first call of proposal successfully in Colombia and 12 projects are now supported covering 37,000 hectares. Three of these projects are directly led by local communities. Last July, the call for proposals in Perú was made to select 10 projects that will receive co-funding that totals US$1,158,700, covering at least 160,000 ha. Bolivia recently opened the call for proposals, with US$1,100,000 available co-funding for the selected projects to be announced early 2024.