Cities and Birds

Lighted cities from space. Satellite image by NASA. Scarlet Tanager by Laura Erickson

Imagine a Scarlet Tanager setting out on his long journey from Minnesota to Peru. What cities might he pass through?

In 2008, it is virtually impossible for any bird to migrate between northern forests and the tropics without flying over dozens of major cities. Quality habitat both where birds breed and where they spend winters is critical to their survival. Equally critical are safe pathways and resting places along their migratory routes.

Protecting the urban environment is vital for resident and migrant birds as well as for human city dwellers. As the human population swells, the more people are happily concentrated in major cities, the less pressure there will be to further develop and fragment the countryside. Thoreau wisely said, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” But in cities is the preservation of wildness.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu