Miles for Migration Run-Walk Fundraiser: May 8-14, 2022

$35.00

Virtual Walk/Run to benefit The Bird Endowment
“Together We Can Fly”
May 8-14, 2022 (1 week!)

Join us in celebrating Migratory Bird Week by walking or running as many miles as you can throughout this one week!

From May 8-14, see how many miles you can walk or run, and how many birds you can see along the way. There will be awards for the top three people who “migrate” the furthest (accrue the most miles during the week), as well as prizes for the top three people who identify the most bird species (by sight or song, on the honor system).

Each spring, birds migrate thousands of miles from their wintering grounds in the south to return to their summer homes up north. Their migration demonstrates how interconnected we all are. Together, we can fly!

All proceeds benefit The Birds Endowment. Scroll down to learn more about Blue-throated macaw migration and stop-over points for migratory birds…

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Description

The Bird Endowment is working to save the critically endangered Blue-throated Macaws, which make small migrations. The fewer than 450 blue-throated macaws roost and forage at the Barba Azul and Laney Rickman Nature Reserves in Bolivia. However, during the breeding season (November through March), they leave the reserve, traveling into unknown reaches of the Beni Savannah. The Bird Endowment is currently raising funds to restore the most important breeding grounds for the macaws, which is located on the Laney Rickman Reserve. In addition to providing critical breeding grounds for macaws, these lands may provide important stop-over sites for other migrating birds.

Long-distance migrating birds evolved to take advantage of seasonal food resources, but they face many challenges and perils during their biannual travels between breeding grounds and wintering grounds. In the Americas, birds usually move north into the United States and Canada in spring, then fly south each fall to wintering grounds in Latin America and the Caribbean. Not ALL bird species migrate. But, many do! Some 350 bird species make this daunting trip and need to find places to rest and refuel along the way, just as people do on a long road trip.

These important locations where birds pause between migratory flights are called stopover sites, where birds can refuel and rest in route to their destinations. Many of these stopover sites are used year after year… such as along the coasts of Louisiana, New Jersey and California, the Copper River Delta in Alaska, and the Upper Bay of Panama. There are also important inland sites, including riparian habitat along the San Pedro River in Arizona, wetlands at Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas, and grasslands in Venezuela. Even sites in urban areas, like Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., are important to migrating birds. As new areas are restored, they can provide the resources birds need to use that area as a stopover site.

Thanks to evolving technology, using tracking devices such as geolocators and satellite transmitters, we are learning about other key places where migratory birds stop to sustain themselves along their journey.

References:

Satellite Telemetry of Blue-Throated Macaws in Barba Azul Nature Reserve (Beni, Bolivia) Reveals Likely Breeding Areas

https://abcbirds.org/article/milestone-more-mysteries-of-blue-throated-macaw-revealed-through-tracking-study/

Environment for the Americas: https://www.ashland.or.us/Files/Stopover%20Factsheet%201.pdf 

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