St. Louis’ Gateway Arch’s LED night lights will be turned off from May 1 until June 1 to minimize light pollution for birds migrating along the Mississippi Flyway during peak migration season. One of four key North American routes for bird migration, over 325 bird species travel the Mississippi Flyway each year, including warblers, owls, sparrows and cranes.
For many species, their destination is the Prairie Pothole region. Called a “pothole” region because it contains millions of glacially-formed depressional wetlands, this vitally important migratory bird habitat came to resemble potholes when its glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age. Since then, these wetlands have provided breeding or migration habitat for dozens of shorebirds and waterbirds coming from the southern U.S.
Waterfowl using the Mississippi Flyway typically come from the southeastern U.S. on their way to the northern Midwest and southern Canada. Songbirds, meanwhile, often make significantly further journeys. Orchard orioles migrate from South and Central America to the Eastern U.S. each spring and begin their journey back south as soon as July.
In addition to the Mississippi Flyway, bird migration is peaking in coming weeks throughout the Atlantic, Central, and Pacific Flyways, with as many as 500 million birds flying across the country on peak migration days.
Despite those impressive numbers, birds are in trouble. America has lost nearly 3 billion birds, and habitat loss remains a threat to those that remain. The very lands birds use for migration stopovers—including the Prairie Pothole region—are being converted for crop use and energy production, negatively impacting grassland bird populations such as the Baird’s sparrow and chestnut-collared longspur.
BirdCast tracks the movement of birds along each of the four major flyways, lists nightly bird migration data for each U.S. county and state, and shows live bird migration maps. Check it out to learn more about your local migrating birds and the routes that they fly.
Tell Congress: Give wildlife room to roam
Wildlife & wild places
Tell Congress: Give wildlife room to roam
The Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act gives wildlife room to roam.
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Daniel advocates for federal legislative advancements on clean energy and wildlife habitat. Daniel lives in Washington, D.C., where he enjoys running and photography.
