Important Bird Areas: New England/Mid-Atlantic Coast

The sites listed here come from The American Bird Conservancy Guide to the 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States (2003). This region, which runs along the Atlantic coast from southern Maine to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, has the densest human population in the entire United States. The highest-priority birds found here, namely American Black Duck, Black Rail, Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, and Saltmarsh, Nelson's and Seaside Sparrows, can be found in coastal wetlands and beaches. Critical habitat for migrating Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstone, and other shorebirds is also here, as are colonies of nesting Roseate and other terns, gulls, herons, egrets and ibis. Exploitation and pollution of coastal waters in this region is a significant conservation issue for the scores of birds and other wildlife that make use of these habitats.