Eighty acres including prime Cerulean Warbler habitat were recently purchased for conservation in the Missouri Ozarks. Photo by Jane Fitzgerald.

Fall 2008

Three Central Hardwoods Joint Venture partners have teamed up with the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation to preserve 80 acres, including prime Cerulean Warbler habitat, in the Missouri Ozarks.

The Nature Conservancy, the American Bird Conservancy and the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation worked together to purchase the property from a private landowner. The land will be sold to the Missouri Department of Conservation at cost.

The Horse Creek tract, as it is called, is bordered on the north and east by the Missouri Department of Conservation's Angeline Conservation Area and on the south by National Park Service land. Approximately 37 acres of the tract are in riparian flood plain and have been identified as Cerulean Warbler breeding habitat.

“While the Horse Creek tract was cleared a few decades ago, it has transitioned back into a mature bottomland forest with characteristics that Cerulean Warblers prefer: well-developed canopy layers and canopy gaps where tall trees, like sycamores or cottonwoods, emerge above the tops of other trees,” said CHJV Coordinator Jane Fitzgerald. Protecting the property from being cleared will also help prevent increases in Brown-headed Cowbirds, which thrive in fragmented forests. The Cowbird is a brood parasite that can impact the Cerulean Warbler population, which has declined by approximately 70% since the mid-1960s.

In addition to preserving excellent habitat for declining bird species, this land acquisition preserves three springs and over half a mile of Horse Creek, a beautiful Ozark stream. While assessing the property, biologists discovered a healthy blooming population of the rare tall larkspur growing along the creek banks. This handsome wildflower is a popular nectar source for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

American Bird Conservancy video of a Cerulean Warbler is available online.

This acquisition is part of American Bird Conservancy’s Cerulean Warbler conservation program that is restoring and protecting breeding habitat, reducing threats, and developing and providing habitat management recommendations for landowners to optimize conditions for Cerulean Warblers and associated forest species. The project has protected lands for the Cerulean Warbler and critically endangered birds in Latin America, including the creation of the first Cerulean Warbler Reserve in Colombia, protecting 252 acres of wintering habitat.

“This land purchase is the first acquisition in the United States by American Bird Conservancy, and the first in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region specifically to protect habitat for a high-priority terrestrial bird species,” said Jane Fitzgerald.

CHJV's Cerulean Warbler Assessment Project

Location of the Horse Creek property in Shannon County, Missouri. The dark circles along the Jacks Fork River indicate Cerulean Warbler sightings.