What to learn more? #BirdMigration #Conservation
Check out our full study in @conbiology.bsky.social
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/RCKH33...
Or read this great article by Kathi Borgmann summarizing these findings: news.cornell.edu/stories/2025....
@cornellbirds.bsky.social

Grateful to collaborate with an amazing team on this work. @jbuler.bsky.social, Adriaan Dokter, @kyle-horton.bsky.social, @emlbcohen.bsky.social, Dan Sheldon, Jaclyn Smolinsky, and David Wilcove.

8. What can we do to help? #BirdConservation
🌳 Restore small forest patches across the Corn Belt to provide more stopover sites.
🏞️ Protect Gulf Coast woodlands, a vital landing zone for birds crossing natural barriers like the Gulf of Mexico.

7. Birds crossing the Corn Belt are more likely to stop over as they approach the “finish line” of barrier crossing. The scattered forest patches within the Corn Belt also appear to serve as important “stepping stones” where birds can stop to rest and refuel. #Conservation

6. Most birds stop to rest immediately after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, as you'd expect for such a taxing journey. But the Corn Belt? The stopover response was weaker. However, we found some telling patterns during crossing. Read on 👇

5. Stopover Behaviors: We computed the proportion of birds stopping over relative to the number of birds flying by (stopover-to-passage ratio, SPR) to compare the impacts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Corn Belt.

4. Flight Behaviors: Birds fly faster (higher airspeeds) and are more selective about flying with tailwinds over the Corn Belt compared to more forested landscapes. This is similar to their strategies for crossing natural barriers like the Gulf of Mexico.

3. Using 5 years of data from 47 weather radar stations, we compared how birds adjust their flight and stopover behaviors when crossing the Corn Belt vs. forested landscapes to the south (Eastern Forest) and north (Northern Forest) of it.

2. Over 76% of the original forests & grasslands in the Corn Belt have been converted primarily to cornfields, creating an anthropogenic barrier to migrating songbirds in North America.