[BCNnet] Bird migration terminology - FYI

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

At the (really great) Wisconsin Audubon conference on Friday, the keynote
speaker from the US Fish and Wildlife Service made a special point of
explaining misunderstandings that bird conservationists have regarding some
common terminology.  These misunderstandings are now having serious
consequences - and so I share his info:

 

1) "Migratory Bird Flyway"  -  this term describes only the
personnel/administrative territories for waterfowl migration. It's more
about bodies of water or wetlands than birds. But most important, it is only
about waterfowl.

 

2)  The maps that show Doppler radar shots of birds migrating across the
country show us where all the Doppler radar equipment is - not where all the
birds are. The blank spots are devoid of radar rays, not birds.

 

3) "Broadfront migration" - that's the term that USFWS uses to describe
migration for the vast majority of birds. The borders of the path IL is in
are the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.

 

It's at this point that birders start pointing out that birds do fly
reliably along certain corridors.  Yep, some species follow preferred
habitat, etc., but when looked at in total, birds can be found anywhere and
everywhere east of the Rockies. 

 

Why the misunderstanding about these terms has become a serious problem is
because the executives in the tower and turbine industries have been led to
believe that birds do fly in specific flight paths that can be mapped.  The
maps that are in bird and conservation books perpetuate this myth.  At the
conference the head of Wisconsin Broadcasting asked for a map of where birds
fly so they could avoid them. The federal employees just shook their heads
in dismay.

 

Randi Doeker

Chicago

 

 

 

 

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