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Bineshiiyag — "birds" in Ojibwemowin — are the wildlife visitors most often see or hear along the gichi onigamiing, the Grand Portage, from Lake Superior to the Pigeon River. Songbirds give voice to the northern forest; they make it nagamowin akiing, the singing land. Yearly surveys show who is singing, and climate models suggest the chorus will change.
Listening for birds along the Grand Portage trail during a survey. Credit: NPS photo.
2014–2018
Many of the songbirds nesting here in summer winter far to the south, some in South America, so they face challenges across a great range of places and seasons. Protecting the northern forest keeps good breeding habitat for them.
| Finding, 2014–2018 | Birds per square mile |
|---|---|
| Densest species: Ovenbird and Nashville Warbler | each averaging 71 |
| Least dense: Blackburnian Warbler | 24 |
| Significant increases: Nashville Warbler | +16 a year |
| Significant increases: American Redstart | +8 a year |
- Seven species were increasing; only the Nashville Warbler's and American Redstart's increases were statistically significant. The Red-breasted Nuthatch alone showed a decline, not significant.
- Three guilds — groups of species sharing a trait such as habitat, nest site or food — rose significantly: insectivores such as warblers and vireos (+6 birds per square mile a year), aerial foragers such as the American Redstart (+7) and woodland species (+5). Year-round residents showed a non-significant decline.
The future of bird song
A study comparing high- and low-emission climate scenarios predicted high turnover in Grand Portage's birds by mid-century (2041–2070) if emissions keep rising:
| Prediction (under both scenarios) | Species |
|---|---|
| Decline | forest species such as the Least Flycatcher and Mourning Warbler |
| Disappear from the area | Bay-breasted Warbler, Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Palm Warbler, Swainson's Thrush |
| Improve | Baltimore Oriole, Bobolink, Chipping Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler |
| Arrive from the hardwood forests and grasslands to the south | Barn Swallow, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Meadowlark, Field Sparrow, Great Crested Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, Ring-necked Pheasant, Scarlet Tanager, Willow Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated Vireo |
These are predictions, not certainties. The northern birds would not be extinct, only shifted north; the land would still sing. But Gichi Onigamiing could change in ways that even the Anishinaabe, here for generations, might not recognize.
Sources
Based on "Nagamowin Akiing: Bineshiiyag Gichi Onigamiing (The Singing Land: Birds at Grand Portage)" from the National Park Service (Grand Portage National Monument), a work of the United States government in the public domain. The survey report is Roberts, S.G., Z.S. Ladin, E.L. Tymkiw, W.G. Shriver and T. Gostomski (2021), Songbird monitoring in the Great Lakes Network parks: 2014–2018; the projections are from Wu and others (2018), Projected avifaunal responses to climate change across the U.S. National Park System.
In queste pubblicazioniGrand Portage National Monument
Licenza: CC0 1.0 (pubblico dominio) · Tratto da www.nps.gov
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