New database ranks most imperiled bird habitats

Conservationists have developed a list of the most imperiled bird habitats in North America. The American Bird Conservancy, NatureServe and others collaborated to develop the Habitats WatchList, an online program that categorizes, maps and assesses risks for bird habitats in the U.S. and Canada. The most imperiled habitats were placed on the Red WatchList, including the Atlantic Rocky Coastline of Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; the Gulf Coast Salt Marsh from Texas to Florida that’s home to declining black rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) and endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana); the Eastern Pine Savanna from Texas to Maine that plays home to threatened red-cockaded woodpeckers (Dryobates borealis); and the Hawaiian Wetlands, among others. “We created the Habitats WatchList because while many vegetation-based conservation tools exist, none were based on a set of criteria that shows the relationship of habitats to threatened bird species,” said David Wiedenfeld, the American Bird Conservancy’s senior conservation scientist, in a press release. “What we found overall is that certain habitats that are home to important bird species are strongly threatened by human development and climate change.”

Read more at American Bird Conservancy.