Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras®

Land O’ Lakes is involved in a unique project designed to help save songbirds. Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® (BWB-ASF) is an international bird research, education, and conservation project sponsored by the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc., and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, in cooperation with private landowners. The project was begun in 1996 to study migratory and resident bird species in Wisconsin, and Belize, Central America.

The northernmost research site was located in Land O’ Lakes. From 1997 through 2001 BWB-ASF staff conducted bird surveys, breeding studies and bird banding at a 260-acre Land O’ Lakes site consisting of diverse habitats. Researchers identified 146 bird species here – about 43% of the bird species likely to be seen in Wisconsin! Research showed that the Land O' Lakes area is important to many bird species, including 65 that are at risk and need our help and planning to survive.

Details of the research and pictures of birds that you can see in the Land O' Lakes area can be found in “The Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® Recommendations for Landowners: How to Manage Your Land to Help Birds (Wisconsin, Midwest and eastern United States edition),” which is available as a free downloadable PDF at: www.zoosociety.org/wilandowner. You can look at print copies of the manual at the Land O’ Lakes Chamber of Commerce and the Land O’ Lakes Public Library.

Other Wisconsin study sites besides Land O’ Lakes included Rosendale in central Wisconsin and Pewaukee in the southeast. BWB-ASF conducted all research on privately owned land. If you own a backyard, farm or a business with some land around it, you can have a major role in helping birds.

Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® has an international impact, since research was also conducted at three sites in Belize, Central America, by an all-Belizean staff. Belize and Wisconsin share 114 species of migratory birds! Three BWB-ASF Belize staff members came to Wisconsin for training and spent time in Land O' Lakes. An edition of the manual based on research in Belize was published in 2006. It is available as a free downloadable PDF at: www.zoosociety.org/bzlandowner

For birders and those interested in seeing a checklist of birds that BWB-ASF detected near Land O’ Lakes, the “Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® Checklist of Birds – Land O’ Lakes Study Site” can be viewed and printed here. The checklist will help to get you started birding, and you may even observe some birds that are not on the list!

For more information on Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras®, or to request copies of both the Wisconsin and Belize manuals for landowners, please visit the Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® Web site:www.zoosociety.org/Conservation/BWB-ASF
or call 414-276-0339.