A quick look at entries on the popular website eBird shows an average of 105 species observed by people visiting Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The forests and river corridors, the dunes and lakeshore, and the pockets of dry savanna are all important habitats for the many birds who nest here or even just move through during spring and fall migration.
Annual songbird monitoring at Pictured Rocks began in 2011. Birds sing to announce and defend nesting territories, so these surveys are a good way of determining what species nest here and what type of habitats they are using. Each June, a person spends 10 minutes at each of 52 survey points, writing down all the birds they hear and see. Surveys are conducted during the first four hours of daylight, so most species are heard rather than seen. Still, we have documented 87 nesting species in the 10 years since that first survey.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
