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Boreal Birds of the Chicago Area (view list)

The Chicago area, despite its urban setting, has an incredible diversity of habitats that host an impressive number birds--413 species as of 1984 to be exact. Of these 413 there are at least 20% (101 species) that migrate through or winter here but breed exclusively or largely in the boreal forests of Canada.

Did you know that the Common Loon, a species whose haunting cries embody the wilderness that is the boreal forest, passes through here in the hundreds during November as it migrates to its coastal wintering grounds? Or that the Rusty Blackbird, an October migrant in wet woodlands in the Chicago area whose call sounds like a rusty hinge, has declined by an estimated 90% over the last 30 years within its boreal forest breeding range. The boreal breeding Bonaparte's Gull, flocks of which can sometimes number in the thousands along the Chicago waterfront, is the only gull species that nests in trees!

Did you know that at least 40 of the 101 boreal breeding species that Chicago hosts are on their way to Central or South America to spend the winter? Gray-cheeked Thrushes, for example, which are migrating through in September and October, will spend the winter in lush tropical forests in the foothills of the eastern Andes Mountains from Venezuela to Brazil. The Blue-winged Teal flocks that you see in the Lake Calumet area in the fall may have nested in the Northwest Territories of Canada and may be on their way to winter in the oppressive heat of Bigi Pan in Surinam along the coast of northern South America.