ByDr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
November 19, 2025
Bird conservation. Image by Tim Sandle
Their stunning flashes of bright color and uniquely beautiful songs have made many migratory birds that visit the New York metro area beloved to millions. Yet these birds face growing threats in the forests where they winter.
A new study in the journal Biological Conservation highlights the connection between the landscapes growing numbers of birders in the U.S. encounter migratory birds and the forests where those birds winter that have become increasingly threatened by deforestation.
This tallies with findings that one in four species listed under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species are now facing extinction from habitat loss and degradation, pollution, and climate change.
This study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the first to connect Central American forests to “sister landscapes” in the north using the crowdsourced eBird app. This means that the major forests of the south are tightly linked to forested areas of the Appalachians, the Mississippi Delta, the Great Lakes, New England, and around New York City. These are places connected by the same bird species at different times of year.
The study documents the critical need to protect Central America’s forests by leveraging digital information across the Americas derived from migratory bird concentrations.
eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by users (‘eBirders’) around the world and an average participation growth rate of approximately 20% year over year.
By using information on where bird populations concentrate week by week each year—made possible by millions of observations around the world from birdwatchers on the Cornell Lab’s eBird platform—scientists found that these five forests collectively support between one-tenth and nearly one-half of the global populations of 40 migratory bird species, including some of North America’s most rapidly declining birds.
Key finding include:More than one-third of the world’s Kentucky Warblers and nearly one-quarter of all Wood Thrushes and Golden-winged Warblers spend the winter within these forests.
Over 40 percent of the global Cerulean Warbler population, a species that has declined by more than 70 percent since 1970, funnels through these forests during spring migration.
The Selva Maya (spanning Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala) and the Moskitia (in Honduras and Nicaragua) are the most critical forests for these birds—yet also the most threatened, having lost a quarter of their area in just 15 years, primarily to illegal cattle ranching.
The research paper finds that actions are being taken, however, these are not enough and financial aid from high income countries is required, especially to boost conservation efforts. As proactive example, across the region, Indigenous and local communities are leading efforts to restore degraded land, fight forest fires, and revive bird-friendly livelihoods such as sustainable cacao and allspice production.
Yet to truly deliver change conservation is essential. This is not only with conserving the major forests of Central America (Selva Maya, Moskitia, Indio Maíz-Tortuguero, La Amistad, and Darién) but focusing on the U.S. too.
In the past, joint conservation efforts across borders have been limited by a lack of understanding of how birds connect habitats and people across seasons. To guide international collaboration, the study applied a framework to trace “stewardship connections” in terms of the regions of North America where species that depend on the great forests concentrate to breed. Protecting and restoring these vital migratory stopovers and wintering habitats is key to ensuring that eastern forest birds keep coming back to North America.
The research, published in Biological Conservation, is titled “Leveraging participatory science data to guide cross-border conservation of migratory birds: A case study from Mesoamerica’s Five Great Forests.”
November 19, 2025
Bird conservation. Image by Tim Sandle
Their stunning flashes of bright color and uniquely beautiful songs have made many migratory birds that visit the New York metro area beloved to millions. Yet these birds face growing threats in the forests where they winter.
A new study in the journal Biological Conservation highlights the connection between the landscapes growing numbers of birders in the U.S. encounter migratory birds and the forests where those birds winter that have become increasingly threatened by deforestation.
This tallies with findings that one in four species listed under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species are now facing extinction from habitat loss and degradation, pollution, and climate change.
This study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the first to connect Central American forests to “sister landscapes” in the north using the crowdsourced eBird app. This means that the major forests of the south are tightly linked to forested areas of the Appalachians, the Mississippi Delta, the Great Lakes, New England, and around New York City. These are places connected by the same bird species at different times of year.
The study documents the critical need to protect Central America’s forests by leveraging digital information across the Americas derived from migratory bird concentrations.
eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by users (‘eBirders’) around the world and an average participation growth rate of approximately 20% year over year.
By using information on where bird populations concentrate week by week each year—made possible by millions of observations around the world from birdwatchers on the Cornell Lab’s eBird platform—scientists found that these five forests collectively support between one-tenth and nearly one-half of the global populations of 40 migratory bird species, including some of North America’s most rapidly declining birds.
Key finding include:More than one-third of the world’s Kentucky Warblers and nearly one-quarter of all Wood Thrushes and Golden-winged Warblers spend the winter within these forests.
Over 40 percent of the global Cerulean Warbler population, a species that has declined by more than 70 percent since 1970, funnels through these forests during spring migration.
The Selva Maya (spanning Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala) and the Moskitia (in Honduras and Nicaragua) are the most critical forests for these birds—yet also the most threatened, having lost a quarter of their area in just 15 years, primarily to illegal cattle ranching.
The research paper finds that actions are being taken, however, these are not enough and financial aid from high income countries is required, especially to boost conservation efforts. As proactive example, across the region, Indigenous and local communities are leading efforts to restore degraded land, fight forest fires, and revive bird-friendly livelihoods such as sustainable cacao and allspice production.
Yet to truly deliver change conservation is essential. This is not only with conserving the major forests of Central America (Selva Maya, Moskitia, Indio Maíz-Tortuguero, La Amistad, and Darién) but focusing on the U.S. too.
In the past, joint conservation efforts across borders have been limited by a lack of understanding of how birds connect habitats and people across seasons. To guide international collaboration, the study applied a framework to trace “stewardship connections” in terms of the regions of North America where species that depend on the great forests concentrate to breed. Protecting and restoring these vital migratory stopovers and wintering habitats is key to ensuring that eastern forest birds keep coming back to North America.
The research, published in Biological Conservation, is titled “Leveraging participatory science data to guide cross-border conservation of migratory birds: A case study from Mesoamerica’s Five Great Forests.”
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