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Sightings

Marsh wren © Tim FitzHarris/Minden Pictures Learn more • Spunky Bottoms Preserve • Migratory Birds Listen to the yellow-headed blackbird (Quicktime, 382 KB)

Bird Call: A CD of Songs Beckons Migrating Birds to Restored Illinois Wetlands

By Christine Mlot

Before dawn, wetlands along the Illinois River fill with the songs of the yellow-headed blackbird, black rail, marsh wren, least bittern and other vocalists. But the sounds aren’t live—yet. A researcher is piping in an avian soundtrack to help lure migrating birds to The Nature Conservancy’s Merwin Preserve at Spunky Bottoms.

“These large restored wetlands are going to be good habitats for these birds,” says Mike Ward, an ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey. The former farmland has reverted back to wetlands because water is being allowed to return to the 2,026-acre preserve. Already, 17 imperiled species of plants and animals have returned on their own, including the nationally threatened decurrent false aster, says preserve manager Tharran Hobson. But certain birds that once lived in the lower Illinois River valley—and then moved on as their habitat disappeared—have passed over the renovated Spunky Bottoms. The plants and hydrology are in place, says Ward, “but some species are just obviously not there.” 

As a way to let birds migrating at night know that the site is suitable, Ward and his co-workers put together the “bird-song mix” of 11 missing wetland species. The technique has worked to attract black-capped vireos to nest at the Conservancy’s Barton Creek Habitat Preserve in Austin, Texas. Like people, birds pay attention to where others hang out. “It’s kind of like pulling into a roadside diner,” says Hobson. “If there are no cars, it makes you wonder.”

But birds also have a strong homing sense, returning to where they’ve nested before, and for most of these species, that means heading farther north and west. Ward says even attracting birds to stop over would be a plus, and he plans to play the songs again next year. By then, he hopes, a chorus of migratory birds will be singing along.