Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture Landbird Habitat Conservation Strategy – 2020 Revision Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture Landbird Habitat Conservation Strategy – 2020 Revision Joint Venture Landbird Committee Members: Kelly VanBeek, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Migratory Birds), Co-chair Chris Tonra, The Ohio State University, Co-chair Mohammed Al-Saffar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Joint Venture) Dave Ewert, American Bird Conservancy Erin Gnass Giese, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay Allisyn-Marie Gillet, Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources Shawn Graff, American Bird Conservancy Jim Herkert, Illinois Audubon Sarah Kendrick, Missouri Dept. of Conservation Mark Nelson, U.S.D.A. Forest Service Katie O’Brien, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Migratory Birds) Greg Soulliere, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Joint Venture) Wayne Thogmartin, U.S. Geological Survey Mike Ward, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Tom Will, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Migratory Birds) Recommended citation: Soulliere, G. J., M. A. Al-Saffar, K. R. VanBeek, C. M. Tonra, M. D. Nelson, D. N. Ewert, T. Will, W. E. Thogmartin, K. E. O’Brien, S. W. Kendrick, A. M. Gillet, J. R. Herkert, E. E. Gnass Giese, M. P. Ward, and S. Graff. 2020. Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture Landbird Habitat Conservation Strategy – 2020 Revision. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA. Cover photo: Whip-poor-will, by Ian Sousa-Cole. TABLE OF CONTENTS STRATEGY SUMMARY ..................................................................................................1 Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................2 CALL TO ACTION............................................................................................................3 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ....................................................................................7 Regional Overview..........................................................................................................8 Pre-European Settlement and Current Land Cover ........................................................9 Relationship to Other Conservation Plans ................................................................... 12 Landbird Stakeholder Surveys .................................................................................... 12 STRATEGIC HABITAT CONSERVATION .................................................................... 13 Biological P lanning ....................................................................................................... 14 Focal Species and Habitat Associations ...................................................................... 14 Land Cover and Habitat Assessment........................................................................... 18 Conservation Estate ................................................................................................... 20 Conservation Design ..................................................................................................... 22 Integrat ing Soc ia l Object ives ...................................................................................... 22 Adapting to System Change ....................................................................................... 24 Habitat Delivery ............................................................................................................ 24 Habitat Quantity vs. Quality ....................................................................................... 25 Conservation Categories and Reporting ...................................................................... 25 Monitoring and Research ............................................................................................... 27 FULL ANNUAL CYCLE ................................................................................................. 27 Breeding ....................................................................................................................... 28 Molt .............................................................................................................................. 28 Migrat ion ...................................................................................................................... 28 Overwintering ............................................................................................................... 30 Airspace – All Seasons .................................................................................................. 31 HABITAT CHAPTERS .................................................................................................... 33 Watch List Prioritization and Goals................................................................................ 34 Grassland B irds ............................................................................................................. 37 Population and Habitat Objectives .............................................................................. 40 Conservation Design .................................................................................................. 41 i Habitat Delivery ........................................................................................................ 44 Forest Birds .................................................................................................................. 51 Population and Habitat Objectives .............................................................................. 55 Conservation Design .................................................................................................. 56 Habitat Delivery ........................................................................................................ 58 Urban Birds and Developed Lands ................................................................................. 64 Biological Foundation................................................................................................ 66 Urban Conservation and Bird Cities ........................................................................... 68 MONITORING AND RESEARCH................................................................................... 70 Monitoring Needs ......................................................................................................... 72 Research Needs ............................................................................................................. 74 COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH ....................................................................... 77 TIMETABLE AND COORDINATION ............................................................................ 80 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................... 81 APPENDICES.................................................................................................................. 95 Appendix A. Common and scientific names of birds...................................................... 96 Appendix B. Class descriptions from 2016 National Land Cover Database..................... 97 Appendix C. Descriptions of Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs)................................... 99 Appendix D. Planning focal species habitat accounts ................................................... 103 Appendix E. Breeding focal species BCR abundance estimates, trends, and goals......... 121 Appendix F. Integration of biological and social objectives.......................................... 127 Appendix G. Check list of community-based (Bird City) conservation actions.............. 129 ii STRATEGY SUMMARY The goal of this revised Joint Venture (JV) Landbird Habitat Conservation Strategy (Strategy) is to guide regional conservation that results in habitat to support populations of priority landbird species and related social values, consistent with continental bird conservation goals. Priority birds include JV focal species used for regional planning, as well as other species considered a high conservation concern by JV partners. The target audience includes those involved with planning, developing, and implementing landbird conservation at state and Bird Conservation Region (BCR) scales. However, information presented in this Strategy should also help clarify potential roles for local-scale managers, leading to best practices for work areas within a regional context. New to this iteration of the Strategy is organization by grassland- and forest-bird habitats. Also new is emphasis on people and the role of human dimensions research to guide bird conservation. For example, the document includes a novel chapter regarding conservation of urban birds and developed lands. Unlike the 2007 JV Landbird Strategy, with its continental top-down approach, this revision provides far more regional-scale information regarding land cover (and bird habitat) change, landscape ecology, and important threats to birds. The Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) section conveys a regional overview for each SHC planning component, whereas sections devoted to grasslands, forests, and urban birds offer guild-specific information and objectives, along with a conservation design to target bird habitat delivery. Due to the vast diversity of landbird species and habitats, ecological systems, land-use patterns, and conservation opportunities across this large JV region, recommendations provided for bird habitat actions are general. However, links to online