Important Bird Areas: Atlantic Northern Forest & Lower Great Lakes
The sites listed here come from The American Bird Conservancy Guide to the 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States (2003). The Lower Great Lakes region (sites #1-9) extends from southeastern Michigan and northern Ohio east through northern New York. Some of the largest concentrations of migrant waterbirds, shorebirds, hawks, and songbirds in eastern North America utilize spots in this area, while what little remains of the forest provides nesting habitat for Cerulean Warblers, and the last vestiges of grassland have Henslow's Sparrows and Bobolink. The Atlantic Northern Forest (sites #10-19) includes northern New England and the Adirondack Mountains, a region of poor soils and spruce-fir forest. Virtually all of the world's Bicknell's Thrushes nest on mountaintops here, while the coast has nesting Nelson's Sparrows (in wetlands), gulls, terns, alcids, and wintering Purple Sandpipers. American Black Ducks also nest, at inland beaver ponds and lakes.
avg. score: 2 of 19 (11%)
required scores: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
