DABB Bytes: All About Avian Migration
Happy Friday! First off, our title “DABB Bytes” allows us to provide to you a snapshot of our connected natural world through the Driftless Area Bioblitz project, the DABB, with the help of iNaturalist. Now, for this week… Posted in our graphic directly below are some of the general DABB statistics from the past week: October 10th through October 17th. 975 observations accounting for 489 different species represents the great amount of biodiversity that can be seen by any citizen scientist right here in the Driftless!
This week we wanted to discuss a few details and resources regarding avian migration! As shown in the figure below, the Mississippi Valley Flyway is an extremely important route that North American birds use; about 40% of all North American waterfowl and about 33% of all North American bird species use this specific flyway.
As we continue to watch birds migrate here through the Driftless, we want you to continue uploading species into iNaturalist, but you can also be a major help to these birds by providing food and water to these long-distance fliers! Bird Watcher’s Digest is a great resource in finding additional ways to support avian populations; read their top 10 ways to support birds in the fall here: https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/learn/top10/birdsinfall.php.
Bird Cast is yet another great resource in keeping track of live avian migration, and it is extremely easy to use! Below you can view a screenshot of last Tuesday, October 12th, during a time when over 320 million birds were active in flight; notice the massive amounts of birds using the Mississippi Valley flyway!
Lastly, below is a map of the Driftless region (the orange outline) showing where our avian observations are prevalent within the iNaturalist data. Again, thank you for continuing to upload your observations as the year progresses!
