A birding survey conducted by the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative in Virginia

Birds depend on the same large, connected, high-quality habitats that land trusts strive to protect. Across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, partners have already permanently conserved over 6 million acres of vital habitats. To build on this success, we can harness the benefits birds can bring to conservation efforts. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is pioneering initiatives to help land trusts and other conservation practitioners expand impact by leveraging the power of birds to aid strategic conservation planning, unlock potential funding and help engage landowners.

Birds and Private Lands: A Conservation Opportunity

The 2019 study titled Decline of the North American Avifauna identified that in the span of 50 years, there was a net loss of 3 billion birds in North America. Research shows that bird populations have continued to decline steadily and are disproportionately dependent on private lands for habitats. The State of Birds 2013 Report, which focused on the importance of land conservation for birds, noted that “over 100 U.S. bird species have 50% or more of their distributions on private lands.” Recognizing the pivotal role that land trusts play in working with landowners to conserve and restore these prime habitats, the Cornell Lab launched the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative. This program fosters partnerships between land trusts and the bird conservation community and builds regional collaborative efforts, including the Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative (NBHCI). Spearheaded by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Highstead, the Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Network and Audubon groups, NBHCI empowers RCP to adopt bird-focused conservation practices into their strategies. This initiative supports monitoring, land prioritization and community engagement.

These initiatives are transforming the landscape, thanks in large part to their major supporters, birders. The State of Birds 2025 Report notes that “Nearly 100 million Americans are birdwatchers, including large shares of hunters and anglers. All that birding activity stimulates the economy, with $279 billion in total annual economic output generated by birder expenditures.” This abundance of birders is driving economic growth across the Chesapeake Bay watershed while also providing a network of passionate people who advocate for land conservation and who voluntarily collect and share data on bird populations.

Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative Mapping Tool depicting wood thrush abundance percentile within its forest habitat.

Birds of a Feather Can Be Tracked Together

The first step in protecting bird habitats is to know where the birds are located. The Cornell Lab developed eBird, a powerful tool that harnesses data from over a million citizen scientists to track bird populations, monitor trends and engage the birding community. However, not all conservation groups have the dedicated staff with the training and expertise to fully utilize this resource. To bridge this gap, NBHCI created the Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative Mapping Tool.

This interactive mapping tool showcases eBird Status & Trends (S&T) breeding season data in 13 states for 43 high-priority status bird species across five habitat types:

• Forest
• Grassland
• Shrub/Scrub and Young Forest
• Wetland/Marsh
• Coastal/Shoreline

The tool offers user-friendly data layers, including:

• Habitat Quality: Identifies areas with the highest concentrations of priority bird species
• Individual Bird Species Data: Displays abundance percentile and high-quality habitat locations for specific target species
• Bird Species List By Pixel: Shows a full species list for each selected pixel, by habitat type, and whether or not they have their high-quality habitat in that pixel

The mapping tool also provides strategic land conservation data layers, such as The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Resilient and Connected Landscapes Climate data, TNC Protected Open Spaces and Audubon Important Bird Areas. These overlays help land trusts make informed decisions about planning and bird habitat conservation efforts. As Sara Barker, program lead for the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative with Cornell Lab, explains, “We wish to showcase ways in which users can interact with eBird modeled data combined with strategic land conservation data layers to look at high-value habitats to inform land planning, bird habitat conservation efforts and connections with communities through birding, increasing both local and regional conservation impact.” This tool provides land trusts with critical GIS support to help them:

• Educate landowners on the value of their lands for many species of birds and why they should conserve those lands
• Provide data to funders about high–priority bird species on lands where they are looking to fund conservation projects
• Prioritize larger-scale conservation planning efforts to stitch together critical habitats for birds

To ensure accuracy, the bird data in this tool will be updated every 2-3 years as new eBird status data becomes available. These bird data layers can also be downloaded by request and added to other GIS land prioritization tools, such as the Chesapeake Conservation Atlas. 

A cerulean warbler

The Early Bird Gets the Funding

Beyond their ecological significance, birds help unlock crucial funding opportunities. Since 2017, the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative’s Small Grants Program has provided over $1.2 million to strengthen land trusts’ capacity and land protection while achieving bird conservation strategies. Applicants are awarded grants through two key funding tracks:

• Management and Restoration Projects: $25,000 grants for habitat management, restoration and stewardship, particularly for priority bird species or those identified in State Wildlife Action Plans
• Capacity and Partnership Projects: $10,000 grants to integrate bird conservation into land trust strategies and/or foster collaborations with the bird conservation community

While this nationwide grant opportunity doesn’t directly fund land acquisition, land trusts can use this funding to enhance their planning, management and stewardship efforts, making their lands more bird-friendly and strengthening future conservation projects. The 2025 grant cycle is closed, but potential applicants can learn more about the grant program and find additional funding resources on their website. For direct land conservation and bird habitat restoration funding, programs like the recently opened Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) Grants Program have helped protect over 18,000 acres of land for fish and wildlife. The 2025 Chesapeake WILD RFP closes May 13, 12:00 pm (EST).

A great blue heron spotted taking off at the Neabsco Creek Boardwalk in Prince William County, Virginia

Inspiring Conservation Through Birds

Sara Barker points out, “Birds have the ability to ignite discovery, inspire action and bring people together, fostering social and cultural connections, and are indicators of ecosystem health, enabling us to assess management practices and biodiversity in our natural systems.” This natural sense of wonder that birds instill in us provides a deeper sense of meaning to the work we do and offers a new way to connect with communities across the watershed to inspire conservation. By leveraging birds’ ecological, financial and cultural significance, conservation partners can protect vital landscapes, ensuring a thriving Chesapeake Bay Watershed for future generations and widespread community support for birds to conserve our treasured lands for everyone who calls them home.

The Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is dedicated to protecting the region’s most treasured landscapes from development, threatening their heritage and scenic beauty that shapes cultural identity, rules tourism and strengthens the economy. Pennsylvania hosts seven of the nation’s 62 designated National Heritage Areas (NHAs), which is more than any other state. Pennsylvania also has 12 state-designated Heritage Areas, including six of the NHAs, one of which is SNHA, helping to ensure that Pennsylvania’s landscapes continue to tell stories of national significance.

Heritage Areas do more than just preserve history but also have the potential to benefit local economies by driving tourism and creating jobs. A study by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania found that in 2014 alone, over 25,700 jobs were supported across the state, and visitors spent 7.5 million days and nights exploring the state’s 12 Heritage Areas. This includes injecting $2 billion into local businesses such as hotels, restaurants and shops that all benefit from revenue generated from an influx of tourists. Historic sites such as the Mifflin House and Farm play an important role in bringing in tourists. Every new historic site that opens up to the public presents an opportunity to preserve history while stimulating economic growth.

Image credit:

1. Hugh Kenny; The Piedmont Environmental Council
2. Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative Mapping Tool
3. Matt Mason; Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library
4. Will Parson; Chesapeake Bay Program

Lightning Update is a regular communication of the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions of the Partnership or member organizations.
To share a success story, news, or important event, send your information to:

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Support for the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is provided by:
National Park Service Chesapeake
EPA Chesapeake Bay Program
USDA Forest Service
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Virginia Outdoors Foundation
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Chesapeake Conservancy

The Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is co-convened by: