Addressing conservation needs of birds during the migratory period: problems and issues
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The conservation of declining intercontinental landbird and shorebird migrants is complicated by the migratory nature of these organisms. Although debate over the causes of declines in most species will no doubt continue for some time, continued attention has focused largely on events associated with the breeding and wintering phases of the migrant's annual cycle. What has been largely overlooked in our developing conservation strategy is the importance of the migratory period and the issues associated with conserving these diverse and often sporadically used stopover habitats throughout the hemisphere (e.g., Moore and Woodrey 1993, Moore 2000). Although we have learned much recently, we still lack fundamental data regarding issues such as species-specific migration routes, which habitats are most important at various locations along the migratory route, where these critical habitats occur, and how their distribution and abundance are changing as a result of development and land conversion. The importance of these data gaps in our knowledge, and thus our ability to develop comprehensive bird conservation plans, are highlighted in two recent North American bird plans: the United States Shorebird Conservation Plan (Brown et al. 2000) and the North American Landbird Conservation Plan (Rich et al. 2004). Although we currently know little about migrant-habitat relations for many of these species, increased attention in both the research and conservation communities are focused on gathering these types of data.