PHOTOS: Migratory Birds At Risk Across the Gulf
This fall, billions of birds -- including some from your backyard or local park -- will fly across the Gulf or stop there to spend the winter. As David Gessner writes for OnEarth: "Migration is a time of both stress and opportunity, but in this strange and oily year, one worries that the former will overwhelm the latter." (See "Invisible Disaster: Fall Migration Over the Gulf.") Here are some of the birds that make the twice-yearly trip across the Gulf and why biologists and birders are worried about their fate.
Whooping Crane
RANGE: The Great Plains to parts of central Canada in summer. They migrate south for winter, many to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern shore of Texas.
ABOUT: Once nearly extinct, these tall, white-feathered cranes have been recovering with the help of conservation efforts in the U.S. and Canada, but they’re still endangered. They often seek sustenance in fresh and saltwater marshes and shallow lakes and lagoons.
CONCERN: Blue crabs. Like most of us, the whooping crane can’t get enough of them (the crabs make up 80 to 90 percent of its winter diet). Thus, damage to the blue crab population from the BP spill also could hurt these birds.
