>> Oh, gosh.
Okay, you can stay there.
>> Birds can connect us.
In North America
and Latin America.
>> Oh, my god!
That was so incredible!
>> People have connected
to save these small
migratory birds.
>> We have to work as a team.
>> They are "Our Birds."
And they face a perilous future.
>> The clock is ticking.
>> Major funding
for "Our Birds" is provided
by the people of Alliant Energy,
who bring safe, reliable and
environmentally friendly energy
to keep homes, neighborhoods,
and life in Wisconsin
running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, offering
energy saving ideas on the Web.
And the Animal Dentistry
and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh
and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working
with pet owners and family
veterinarians throughout
Wisconsin, providing care for
oral disease and dental problems
of small companion animals.
Additional funding is provided
by the Paul E. Stry Foundation
of La Crosse, Wisconsin,
and Friends of Wisconsin
Public Television.
>> There's a connection
between Calumet County
in Wisconsin
and the rugged hills
rising up from the Pacific Ocean
of Costa Rica's
Corcavado National Park.
A tie between
the skyscraper canyons in
the cities of North America.
>> It's a Canada Warbler.
>> And the rainforest
of the southern hemisphere.
This is the bond,
a winged connection
that we share.
>> That's a long ways on those
little wings.
>> These birds, neotrops,
short for neotropical migrants,
that breed in the northern
hemisphere and migrate
in fall and spring,
back and forth, to their home
in the southern forests.
Their numbers are falling,
and they face enormous perils,
north and south.
People are working to save them,
working to save "Our Birds."
>> Look at that!
>> Wow!
>> That is amazing to me.
>> They take the leaves back and
they culture fungus on them.
Then they eat the fungus.
>> Change
is not always easy to see.
>> Oh, he's eating it.
>> See how he mushes it up
and eats it.
>> These birds watchers.
>> Look at that,
going back and forth.
>> All from Wisconsin.
>> A linneated woodpecker.
>> Are on an adventure
through the jungles
and beaches, and other
wild places of Costa Rica.
And in the process, they are
creating change, creating a new
model for bird conservation that
could be imitated worldwide.
It's a model pioneered
by this man, Craig Thompson.
He's an ardent birder.
>> Oh, yeah, it's just,
what are we gonna see next?
So you just get so jazzed,
and you go, "Ahh!"
He's backing up.
He's backing up!
>> Oh, he's turning.
He's moving!
>> Thompson works as a regional
land program supervisor.
>> Oh, my gosh,
it's a Swainson's Thrush.
>> For the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources.
This is his beat,
the Mississippi River
side of the state.
>> I got him!
>> You got him?
>> He knows birds
and conservation.
And he's traveled the world
in his time off
putting the two together
in a new way.
>> We're calling it
conservation birding trips.
What we do, is provide trips
basically at cost.
So we're offering bargain
basement prices, but the catch
is that every birder,
every participant that goes on
these trips has to donate
$500 per person to a non-profit
conservation organization.
And of course, the primary
emphasis of that is to save
habitat, to save wintering
habitat specifically, for those
birds that migrate from
Wisconsin down to Latin America.
>> Wintering habitat.
Home base, really, for these
tiny birds for most of the year.
>> It's a Philadelphia Vireo.
>> And different neotrops
need different habitat.
Red-eyed Vireos
prefer living up in the canopy
of the rain forest.
It's watery coastal mango forest
for the Prothonotary Warbler.
Weedy areas at the edges
of agricultural fields
for the Indigo Bunting.
The Eastern Phoebe likes
to hang by rivers and streams.
Places that are also valuable
and vulnerable.
>> The clock is ticking.
The population of Latin America
is expected to increase
by 100 million to 360 million
over the next 40 years.
That's a lot more people
in a very finite land mass.
They need clothes.
They need food.
They need shelter.
And they're going to want all
the things that we have in terms
of lifestyle, televisions,
washers, dryers, refrigerators.
The clock is ticking and we
really have a very limited
window to try to protect these
remaining big blocks of forest,
so we can hang onto the birds
that breed up in the States
and then winter down here.
Every acre that's protected
makes an enormous difference.
>> Fall, by a small pond
on the outskirts of Madison.
Wisconsin conservationist
Charlie Luthin is on the lookout
for the last of the small
fall migrants, the neotrops,
as overhead the big migrants
move through.
>> They came back
from the brink.
There were times when the Canada
Goose was rare in Wisconsin, but
now they're abundant, because of
the protective measures.
>> Birds are a big concern
for Luthin and the non-profit
organization he works for.
He's the executive director of
the Natural Resources Foundation
of Wisconsin.
It's a 2,500-member organization
with a budget of more than a
million dollars, and a singular
mission.
>> We raise money to give it
away, to support good
conservation work.
>> And birds have been
a big part of that.
The Whooping Crane.
The endangered Kirtland Warbler.
Turkey Vultures.
But now, for the first time,
they're sending money south,
to buy land here.
>> I saw an opportunity
for our Wisconsin organization
to get involved
in Latin American conservation.
I couldn't have been happier.
I was thrilled.
If we, as Wisconsin citizens,
don't protect habitat
in Central America
and South America,
we'll lose the song birds
in our backyard.
It's as simple as that.
They're really tropical birds.
They are more fluent in Spanish
than they are in English,
because they spend more than
half their life in either
Central or South America.
>> Yes, our birds
spend the bulk of the year here.
Sharing the landscape
with the locals.
The Rufus Mot Mot.
The Spectacle Owl.
The Scarlet Macaw.
The tropical birds
who don't travel.
But our birds do.
Every fall, they pour south.
>> Imagine that this funnel
represents a map.
The top part of the funnel,
the wide part, is Canada
and the United States.
The lower part of the funnel is
the isthmus of Central America.
>> The grains of sand
are south migrating birds.
They funnel down, and they're
packed in to these wild places.
>> So, for every acre of Central
America, it's much more valuable
than an acre of North America,
because it's holding more birds
at a higher concentration.
>> These migrating birds
pour on the miles.
That backyard Baltimore Oriole
can log up to 3,000, one way.
The U.S. first third
is probably the easiest part
of their incredibly demanding
journey.
>> Now they actually migrate
over the Gulf of Mexico non-stop
for 500 miles.
That's going to take a Baltimore
Oriole probably 18 hours.
If it hits a head wind,
24 hours.
It's going to land on the
Yucatan Peninsula, exhausted,
emaciated.
It's got to be able to eat right
away if it wants to be able
to continue its journey another
700, 800, 900 or 1,000 miles
south to its wintering grounds,
either in Costa Rica or Panama.
We have to make sure
that they have quality habitat
when they actually arrive
on their wintering grounds.
It doesn't matter how many
of them we grow up in Wisconsin
if there isn't a place for them
to winter down here, we're just
growing more birds that are
drift around and die.re,
>> And they are.
>> The Wood Thrush
is going down.
Kentucky Warblers are going
down.
Even our Baltimore Oriole,
that species is declining
at 1.3% per year.
>> How to stop that decline
when the habitat here
is disappearing.
>> We have never sent money to
Latin America, despite the fact
that more than half of our birds
are entirely dependent
on the these forests
that you see around us.
>> We do, however,
send money to Canada.
We have for years.
Wisconsin hunters
buy water fowl stamps.
Those monies buy habitat north,
across the border.
>> Upwards of $100,000 to
$200,000 a year that has been
applied to protecting
breeding habitats for water fowl
in Canada.
That's been going on for
the last couple of decades.
You know, the hunters understood
the notion of conservation
very early.
If they want to keep hunting
ducks, there has to be not only
breeding habitat for them,
but wintering habitat for them.
>> Thompson believes it's time
for birders to step up to the
plate.
>> Everybody on it?
>> These folks have.
Monies raised by these
conservation birders have saved
more than 2,000 acres of land
south of the border
for migratory song birds.
>> How's everybody feeling?
Everybody all right?
>> And in 2009, Thompson helped
bring in another partner
to purchase land.
A big one,
the state of Wisconsin.
>> I'm very proud to say, for
the first time in history, the
Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources has actually donated
a substantial amount of funding
to help protect the wintering
habitat in Latin America
for our migratory birds.
It's never happened before.
Ground breaking in terms of the
department's participation.
>> The state of Wisconsin
donated $20,000
to save wintering habitat here.
Note that Wisconsin's donation
to save Wisconsin's birds
didn't require tax dollars.
>> It's not tax dollars
that are being used.
It was a wonderful donation
called the Bell Family
Foundation.
It's money that's actually been
donated to the agency.
We made a conscious decision
to apply those funds to help
purchase the Cerro Osa property.
>> The Cerro Osa.
>> Two-thirds of this property
is primary forest.
It's the good stuff.
Never been cut.
Thousand-year-old trees.
>> Here's a look.
In the foreground is Cerro Osa,
a 1,500-acre property,
forested and wild.
In the background, past the
hills, is the southern tip of
Corcavado, Costa Rica's largest
national park, 100,000 acres.
The goal is to create a corridor
of protected land,
from Corcavado, including
the Cerro Osa property, and
extending to the southern tip
of the Osa Peninsula.
This peninsula,
the Osa Peninsula,
is a very rare place.
>> It is literally one of
the most biodiverse places
on the planet.
It's this big chunk of land
that sticks into the Pacific.
It's covered with forest.
And one of the reasons this
peninsula is so significant
is not only because it has all
kinds of species, many of which
are found nowhere else in the
world, but because there are
still big blocks of forest here,
there are hundreds of thousands
of acres of forest,
essentially in tact.
>> It's a Mecca for thousands of
birds, including our migrants.
>> We have 240 species
of breeding birds in Wisconsin.
Of those, at least 54 species,
so 25% of our Wisconsin birds
are spending the winter
in a very, very tiny piece
of real estate,
the Osa peninsula of Costa Rica.
If we can save a portion
of the Osa Peninsula,
we'll be able to protect
a lot of our Wisconsin birds.
>> There are all kinds of
species that breed in Wisconsin
that depend on these big blocks
of forest, Swainson's Thrush,
Kentucky Warbler, Wood Thrush,
Olive-sided Flycatcher.
They're dependent
on these forests.
If the forests aren't there,
what happens from the practical
standpoint is they're pushed
into secondary habitats,
and a lot just don't make it.
>> They need a large intact
forest.
They aren't alone.
The forests of the Osa Peninsula
are still wild enough,
still big enough to support
five different species
of wild cats.
>> They hunt in a huge
home range.
Sometimes around
100 square kilometers,
400 square kilometers,
and sometimes more than
1,000 square kilometers.
>> Ricardo Moreno is
a Costa Rican researcher
who knows his forests.
>> It's the garlic tree,
the ajo tree.
It's one of the biggest around.
>> And his felines.
>> They will have different
sounds, and one of those
is like--
( imitates a roar )
>> And the connections between
these so-called large cats,
the jaguarundi, the ocelot,
the puma, the margay and
the jaguar, these wild cats of
the Osa, and Wisconsin warblers.
>> The connection between
the jaguars and the birds
of Wisconsin is pretty big.
Jaguars are a keystone species
and umbrella species.
If we can protect the range, the
huge home range of the jaguar,
we can protect all the animals
inside, the birds and the other
species can come and be safe.
>> Moreno and his research
partner, Aida Bustamante, have
pioneered a multi-year study
of wild cat population dynamics
and habitat needs.
>> This is one of our best
places.
We like it a lot.
>> To study these secretive
creatures, they've set up
one of the largest camera trap
survey grids in the world.
More than 100 square kilometers
large, across the Osa Peninsula.
>> Hopefully, we get some
wild cats.
Cross your fingers.
Wow, this is a margay.
>> Margays can spend
their entire lives up here in
these trees, just like a bird,
and never touch down.
>> We can identify the
individual with the spot
patterns, because every single
animal has different spot
patterns.
>> And like our birds,
many of these wild cats
are under pressure.
>> We know between 2008 and
2009, nine jaguars were killed.
And it's a lot.
A lot of jaguars killed.
>> Moreno explains, one of these
conservation concerns in
a PowerPoint for Thompson's
conservation birding group.
>> People still trade the skins
here in the Osa Peninsula.
That is horrible.
Look at this.
This is an ocelot fur coat
in Italy, in the black market
in Italy.
How many ocelot that people need
to make one fur coat like this?
Give me one number.
Sixteen? 20?
Okay, people need at least 30
ocelots to make one fur coat
like this.
Most of them have destroyed our
cameras, or stole our cameras.
If we don't do something really,
really hard and really good
with the locale people, we have
a forest without jaguars.
And I cannot imagine something
like this.
>> The solution
was in this forest.
They had to get the local
people, the local poachers,
to see this forest
in a different way.
So they offered up
a business plan.
>> If you know where one jaguar
is walking around, and you come
with us and put the camera, and
if the jaguar cross in front of
the camera and we get a picture,
we pay to you.
And all the poachers
are like, wow, hmm.
Okay, it's easy.
You need to talk with your
friends, the other poachers
around, because if one of your
friends stole the camera, or
broke, you don't have the money.
>> Save the camera.
Save money.
Save the wild cats,
and save our birds.
>> Everything in the wildlife
and in the forests
have a connection.
Everything.
We cannot see, like jaguars on
this side, birds on this side.
All that fauna are together.
If we can keep the forests
like this, I think it's magic.
It's going to continue coming
back, go to North America,
and come to the Neotropics.
>> The local people are the key
of the conservation
around this area.
If we don't change the mind
of the people here,
we don't do anything
very, very good.
>> Juan Felice Mendoza Suarez is
one of the those local people.
His family goes back generations
in the Osa.
Suarez describes his job as fun.
He plants trees for the
Costa Rican environmental
non-profit, Amigos de Osa.
Friends of the Osa has funded
a variety of conservation
projects, including
the initial purchase of land
in the Cerro Osa property.
The organization was founded
in part by this man,
Adrian Forsyth,
the guy on the right,
holding the chunk of bamboo.
>> So, anyways,
it's an experiment to try.
>> Okay.
>> And it'll be dirt cheap,
which is what we like.
We like dirt cheap, right?
>> Forsyth is one of the world's
top conservationists, a tropical
scientist, he's not a birder.
He's a dung beetle specialist.
>> You know, I'm really
a bug person by nature.
I think that's because of
my extreme myopia.
I like to look at little
close-up things.
I like nothing better than
to just sit on a log watching
an army ant swarm going by.
>> And maybe that explains his
start small, think big
approach to conservation.
On this day, he's showing
Corey Cramer, the supervisor
of the Cerro Osa, a new process
for preserving bamboo,
that could grow into a lucrative
local business using local
and dirt cheap materials.
>> If you make guava leaf tea,
you get this stuff
that looks like Coca Cola.
I made a bunch last night
on the stove.
>> Forsyth has also come up with
a dirt cheap and very innovative
research model for restoring
damaged forest land
on the Cerro Osa.
It's funded through
contributions from various
Wisconsin businesses, including
Neenah Paper.
>> They are contributing $60,000
over three years to help
re-forest areas that have lost
their original forest cover.
The funds go directly into
raising seedlings, and providing
funds for those people
who are planting those trees.
>> The funds for this replanting
project are routed through
the Natural Resources Foundation
of Wisconsin.
And the project includes some
unexpected co-collaborators.
>> I figured when you have to
replant a rain forest, you've
got to plant 140 different
species of trees.
>> Not so.
>> In fact, if you plant
the species that attract the
animals, they will recreate
a rain forest.
They eat the fruits.
They eat the nuts.
They walk through the woods
and they poop.
They leave the seeds
on the ground.
It's as simple as that.
Birds fly over head.
They drop seeds when they poop.
Bats fly in.
They may have some seeds
attached to their fur.
Or something like a parrot, or
a fruit-eating bird, may eat the
fruit part and drop the seed.
So you get your native animals
to come in and do the work
for you, if you attract them in.
It's a brilliant idea.
>> They're concentrating
on 30 species of trees, with
attractive seeds and fruits.
Cramer shows Thompson's
conservation birding group
the tree farm.
>> These are all wild nutmeg.
They call it fuita dorado here,
like golden fruit.
It opens up and it has
a bright red aril,
and that's what toucans, monkeys
and other animals eat.
They'll grab that seed.
You know how toucans eat, right?
They flip it up
and they swallow it.
They eat that and then
they regurgitate that seed.
They don't stay in one place,
obviously.
They'll fly somewhere and then
they'll spit that seed out.
>> So from these select trees, a
complete rain forest can emerge.
Those who plant those trees,
like Suarez,
are critical to that effort.
>> Now, people are starting
to see the forests as a resource
that can create jobs for local
people that are based on living
with the forest rather than
being against the forest.
>> Given time and helped by this
innovative planting project,
rain forests will grow
to resemble these.
But Friends of the Osa is also
supporting innovative
alternatives to harvesting trees
here.
>> If you tell farmers they
can't go and cut a 500-year-old
tree to build a barn, you have
to provide some alternative to
them.
>> This is an alternative.
Bamboo.
Alfredo Quintero has a doctoral
degree in agronomy.
He's worked and studied abroad,
but made the decision to return
to his father's farm,
here in the Osa.
Quintero has planted species
that are non-invasive and can be
viewed here in his demonstration
garden.
>> They grow in a clump and you
can manage them, just the way
you manage an orange tree.
It doesn't take off into the
forest and become a pest.
But you know, it provides great
framing timber for making
lightweight, super strong
structures.
>> Bamboo is strong enough
to serve as scaffolding.
>> There's a business in
providing green, sustainably
managed materials.
You get usable, terrifically
strong bamboo in five years,
versus waiting 500 years
for a rain forest tree
to finally mature.
>> Quintero's goal, supported by
Friends of the Osa, is to get
local farmers to see bamboo as a
sustainable, sometimes superior
substitute for wood from the
forest.
This scientist hopes to provide
farmers with a new crop, a new
source of income that will also
save the forest and our birds.
Thousands of miles north,
in Wisconsin's Vilas County,
another researcher, Amber Roth,
is searching for ways to save
our birds with a different
kind of forest.
>> This is an aspen clear-cut
that is about seven years old.
We have a Golden-winged Warbler
nest right in front of me.
>> Here's the important take
away from what Roth just said.
It's the tie between this young
scrubby aspen forest that grows
up after a clear-cut, and this
Golden-winged Warbler nest.
The nest was abandoned because
of predators, but that fact that
a Golden-winged nested here says
that this type of forest is
ideal for this sort of bird.
>> He's got a nest that he needs
to get back to.
>> But Golden-wings
are in trouble.
Their numbers are in serious
decline.
The birds face a triple whammy.
Their annual migrations
are ordeal enough.
>> It's thousands of miles,
potentially, that they're
traveling.
It's a long ways on those little
wings.
>> Once in their wintering
grounds, they face ongoing loss
of forest land to agriculture,
making this an increasingly rare
sight.
>> A Golden-winged Warbler!
>> Golden-winged Warbler.
>> Okay, go above the light,
and to the right of the light.
>> You got him!
>> Golden-winged Warbler.
>> Wow.
>> There he goes.
>> While back on their summer
breeding grounds, these low
shrublands, perfect for hiding
a ground-based nest
are disappearing.
Research is critical.
And Wisconsin is a critical
place.
>> Wisconsin is known as the
epicenter for Golden-winged
Warbler breeding.
>> These guys like young
shrublands.
>> And Golden-wings aren't the
only ones.
>> I have a male Chestnut-sided
Warbler.
>> There are many birds that
prefer this kind of place.
>> We have got a Black-and-White
Warbler.
This attracts birds that like
a dense shrub layer.
This is a Mourning Warbler.
Because they have a lot of cover
for their nests.
Okay, there you go, dear.
>> This landscape is valuable
for these birds.
It may also be increasingly
valuable for us.
That intersection is the focus
of her research.
>> We're part of a big
cellulosic ethanol project with
a variety of researchers who are
really interested in what the
future potential is for using
aspen and grasslands for
potential sources for cellulosic
ethanol.
>> Fill 'er up.
With aspen.
>> You can make ethanol from
any kind of plant material.
That's what we're trying to look
for, is sort of a win-win
scenario between our economic
needs and the needs of wildlife.
You know, is there a way that
we can help our fuel prices,
and can we also create better
habitat for wildlife
at the same time?
>> Here.
There you go.
>> Logging is big business
in Wisconsin.
And one that has faced
rocky times.
>> They're very interested in
new options, especially with
the way prices are in the timber
industry.
Cellulosic ethanol is a big,
emerging industry that has
a lot of potential.
When contractors come out and
cut a site like this, there's
a bunch of branches and twigs,
and portions of the trees that
aren't used.
It could be that they use more
of the forest when they cut.
They lose the potential of using
what we call waste wood
for cellulosic ethanol.
>> Can a new industry take wing?
>> This might be a juvenile
Nashville Warbler.
>> Can we change the way
we see this landscape,
see this forest
as a place that provides fuel
for us, jobs for the future,
and sustenance for our birds?
To see a new way.
To work with the forest
instead of against it,
in the north and in the south,
and in the process,
protect our birds.
Deep in the rain forest
of Panama, Raul Arias,
a businessman, politician and
a leading light in Panama's
conservation community,
fell in love.
>> I don't know why, but I did
fell in love with this
structure.
It was a radar when the Cold War
was at its height.
The idea was to detect missiles
coming from Cuba,
or from the Soviet Union,
to attack the canal,
an early warning type of thing.
>> It was an abandoned
U.S. radar station
overlooking the Panama Canal.
>> I knew it could become
a great birding lodge.
Here, you see canopy birds
at eye level.
>> Now, it's called Canopy
Tower, and it's one of the top
birding sites in the world.
It helped spark an industry
in eco-tourism in Panama.
>> There was no precedent
in Panama.
I had my own doubts
if it would work or not.
It was a shot in the dark.
Fortunately, it hit
right in the center.
>> It's even sparked a companion
business in the highlands of
Panama, Canopy Lodge.
But most importantly, it's a
successful business, creating
jobs, working with the forest.
>> There are 18 people working
here.
It's a 100% sustainable
activity.
>> Canopy Tower birding guide,
Jose Rafael Soto.
>> So far, it's a good job.
You can make a good living
out of this.
It's right out in the open,
sitting on a dead branch.
I have a house.
I got married and have a car.
So, when I tell people what
I do, they don't believe it.
Apparently, there's a male and
female trying to build a nest
in a curled up cercropia leaf.
>> It's a job with a future.
>> They take their chances
when they do this,
because the leaf is dead.
It will fall any time.
>> Other jobs that cut down
the forest can come and go.
>> With eco-tourism, we can take
people, hundreds of times,
through the same forest
and still be the same.
>> The male is right next to
her.
>> The forest around Canopy
Tower and the Panama Canal
is now a national park.
When the United States
controlled the canal, for
security reasons, there was no
development allowed.
It was an inadvertent windfall
that saved bird habitat,
and is critical for the smooth
operation of the canal.
>> The forest here has not only
aesthetic value for enjoyment
and eco-tourism,
but also it protects
the watershed of the canal.
It's vital for Panama's economy,
the canal and fresh water.
It makes the watershed
to be in good condition.
If you have a good forest in the
winter, the rains come and
they just wash into the ocean,
into the sea.
>> An intact forest can provide
the fuel for a canal, and
shelter and food for our birds.
The fuel for that long journey
north.
>> It's a day in May,
a bleak and blustery day
in downtown Milwaukee.
>> Whoa!
Wind hazard!
>> It's early morning,
and Scott Diehl is on
a search and rescue mission.
Search and rescue for small
survivors like these.
Diehl is the director of
Wildlife Rehabilitation for
the Wisconsin Humane Society
in Milwaukee.
>> A lot of glass.
I think the bird collision issue
has been one that has not had
much awareness to date.
And when these buildings were
built, there wasn't an awareness
about the magnitude
of this problem.
Reasonable estimates place the
mortality between 100 million
and a billion native birds dying
in North America each year
in window collisions.
>> They hit the
glass and they die.
It's a phenomenon
called window strikes.
Hundreds of millions of neotrops
perish every year
in North America.
The problem is particularly
acute in Milwaukee, which is
dead center in the Lake Michigan
flyway, a bird migration
highway, and oh, so different
from the rain forests back home.
>> What happens down in this
urban canyon down here,
downtown Milwaukee,
is there's so much confusion.
There's so much glass,
and so many reflective surfaces
that the birds
really get confused.
They land in this area
and then it's literally
a gauntlet of glass and steel
and concrete that they just
are not prepared to deal with.
>> And all these reflections
and light in this gauntlet
of glass can cause collisions.
>> They hit the building
for one of two reasons.
Either they see the lights at
night when they're migrating and
they get confused by the lights.
The other reason they collide
is daytime collisions,
where it's just reflections
of the landscape on the glass.
>> Or the birds actually see
through these windows to
greenery beyond, and think
they've found a passageway.
>> They have no concept
of glass.
And if you think about the
jungle or the forest where these
birds live, it's much like
flying through the trees,
where there are gaps, and so on,
and winding their way
through the foliage.
So when they see in one window
and out another, they think
they can pass through there,
you know, with deadly
consequences.
>> So, every morning during
migration season, Diehl and
a team of volunteers
fan out across the city.
It's search and rescue below big
buildings with many windows.
It's search and rescue to count
the dead and save the injured.
WIngs is the name
of Diehl's rescue group.
Wisconsin Night Guardians
for Song Birds.
>> We've got a little bird
up ahead here.
I'm going to go up and see
if I can snag the little guy.
>> Just outside one of the
city's biggest skyscrapers,
Diehl finds his first casualty,
a bright yellow warbler, lying
still against the gray cement.
>> It's a Canada Warbler.
Ah, poor little guy,
or girl, as the case may be.
>> Research has shown that one
out of every two window strikes
leads to a fatality.
Often birds that may appear
merely stunned have internal
injuries that lead to their
demise.
>> We've got a Nashville Warbler
that was found dead
down at U.S. Bank,
north side of Michigan,
between Cass and VanBuren.
This bird that weighs ten grams
has flown to Costa Rica
or Panama to Wisconsin,
across so many hazards.
They're at once amazing in their
capability flying those
distances and traversing all
those mountain ranges, rivers
and oceans, and yet, you know
1/16" thick piece of glass is
enough to stop them permanently.
Staggering, staggering.
And we're talking about
dump trucks-full of these
beautiful birds,
just dying senselessly.
And again, most of us
aren't even aware of the issue.
If something the size of a deer
was laying dead outside these
businesses each morning,
or ten or 20 of them,
you can really believe
that someone to take notice.
>> There you go.
There you are.
>> Most are in the dark
about this problem.
The Wisconsin Humane Society
is on a mission to change that.
>> It's great to be able to
treat that bird and hopefully
rehabilitate it, get it out
again, get it released.
But how much better is it to
prevent this in the first place?
To stop this needless death
and suffering for birds.
>> Rehabilitation is costly.
And wildlife rehabilitators
receive no public dollars.
They exist on private donations.
So the volunteers not only
collect birds, they also compile
information on the location
of the window strikes.
The hope is to persuade
business owners to take steps
to cut down on collisions.
>> We want to be able to go
back to them and say, here's
what we found, and be able to
actually document the oblem.
It gives us a little bit of
backup when we approach these
folks and ask them to help us
save birds.
>> Cutting down on collisions
needn't be costly.
In fact, it can save businesses
money.
A voluntary program called
"Lights Out Toronto"
hits the off switch
from 11pm to 6am during fall
and spring migrations.
>> Those businesses saved
hundreds of thousands of dollars
and reduced their carbon
footprint.
>> Easy peel window treatments.
Put them up during migration,
then take them down,
on just the first two floors
of buildings and homes
can cut down enormously
on death and injuries
from daytime collisions.
Dead or alive?
>> Alive!
Fortunately, alive,
which is wonderful.
>> The little warbler
Diehl found is alive.
Diehl bundles the bird
into a simple paper bag.
It's dark and safe.
And the bird won't injure
herself if she flutters about
and tries to fly.
And it's off
to the Humane Society.
>> Window collisions, we'll look
for eye injuries, head injuries,
blood coming from the mouth.
You can see this eye
is a little bit swollen.
It looks a little dehydrated,
kind of droopy-eyed.
It's not open all the way,
like this one is.
I'm just testing to see how
they bounce back into place.
If they're broken, they'll droop
down and they won't pop back
into place like this one's
doing.
He looks in good condition.
I'm not feeling any breaks
in the wings.
>> After assessment, it's time
for a little re-hydration
and a warbler-sized amount
of medicine.
>> I'm just going to put it
on the seam of the bill.
This helps with pain, and
swelling, and inflammation.
>> The same day as this rescue,
Diehl drove to Doctors Park,
north of Milwaukee, to band--
>> Okay, bud.
Be careful.
>> And release four birds
brought back to health
after window strikes.
>> So, just roll him over there,
Elizabeth, and let me get a leg.
Okay, ready to go.
Be careful there, kiddo.
Don't you hit any windows.
Ah, success.
Ha-ha!
Wonderful.
Oh, I hope they do well.
We gave them a second chance,
anyway.
There's 10,000 windows between
here and where some of these
guys want to be.
So we're hoping that people will
get involved and take action on
their own homes and businesses
to help these little guys
make it.
>> The migrations
of these tiny birds,
traveling thousands of miles
twice a year, is full of peril.
>> Somebody who lived near
my mother's house had
a Baltimore Oriole in a cage.
It was very sad for me to know
that this bird traveled for
miles and miles, to get down
to Panama and get trapped.
I told him, you have to let it
go, because it needs to go back
home.
If you want to see him, put a
feeder outside your house, and
it will come to the feeder.
Then you will provide him with
food, like you would with people
who migrate.
You offer them water and food
to keep going.
Well, do it with the birds, too.
>> They need shelter and food,
stopover habitat.
And 30 miles north of Milwaukee,
they're making some.
Just outside of Port Washington,
people had the vision to put
this old golf course to new use.
From swing time to sing time.
This 116-acre parcel
was purchased by the Ozaukee
Washington Land Trust.
Shawn Graff is the director.
>> We purchased the site with
the idea that it's number one
function here is for the birds.
Literally.
As a matter of fact, we changed
the name from Squires Country
Club to Forest Beach Migratory
Preserve.
This was a real opportunity.
This was one of the last
remaining 100+ acre sites
that was not developed
on Lake Michigan.
>> This lake is a critical
flyway for migrating birds.
Birds need this lake
and land along it.
Kim Grvels, conservation
biologist for the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources,
and one of the advisors
to the Forest Beach project.
>> They migrate at night,
and they fly all night.
Many flocks will find themselves
out over Lake Michigan
when dawn hits.
They can't put down in the
water, so they must find habitat
quickly, because they could
easily get picked off by a hawk
that's also migrating
at that time of the year.
>> They need protection
and they need food.
>> When they arrive at a
stopover site, oftentimes their
energy stores have been depleted
and they are voraciously hungry.
They're actively foraging and
feeding, and moving around in
the trees and shrubs,
and grabbing what insects
they can find.
>> Birds touch down and bulk up
all along Lake Michigan.
Biologists describe the quality
of the landing spots this way.
>> The fire escape,
the convenience store,
and the full-service hotel.
Well, a fire escape is a place
that will save the bird's life
when it's migrating.
It's going to be a very nominal
habitat, such as a hedgerow in
a box store, or even the railing
of a ship on Lake Michigan.
It gives the bird a place
to put down and rest.
>> Next up,
the convenience store.
Kind of what's here now.
>> A convenience store would be
the next best thing for a bird.
It may not replace all the
energy that the bird has spent,
but it will give it
some replacement.
A full-service hotel would be
a large landscape with a mosaic
of different habitat types.
That would give them everything
they need to build up their
energy stores for a long fight.
>> Different species need
different habitats.
We're hoping to have woods.
We're going to have grassland.
We'll have savannah.
We'll have shrubland,
all different types of areas for
different species to have their
best shot at surviving
that journey that they take
along the flyway.
We're told by some of our
experts that this is the first
time that they've heard of a
preserve that's being developed
specifically for migratory
stopover habitat.
They haven't heard of one
in Wisconsin, or anywhere
in the country.
This is one of those projects
where a lot of people thought,
you know, you're crazy, buying
this golf course and trying to
turn it into preserve.
They thought I had gone coo-koo.
It's really a pleasure and
rewarding that we're making it
happen.
>> Habitat, created.
Habitat, found.
On the other side of the state,
Craig Thompson is birding
in his home town of LaCrosse.
>> It's a little warbler
called a Tennessee Warbler.
That's it, right there.
( imitates warbler's song )
It's got this accelerating
staccato call.
That bird just spent the winter,
probably in Costa Rica,
and is headed to boreal Canada
to breed.
This is a species that we'll
only hear during migration.
>> The sharper-eyed among you
may have noticed the headstones
behind Thompson.
Yes, that's right,
he's birding in a cemetery.
And here's the story.
Cemeteries have a role to play
in international conservation
efforts for migrating birds.
This one is called Oak Grove,
and it's not way out in the
suburbs.
Nope, it's nearly downtown.
>> We're almost smack in the
middle of the city of LaCrosse.
It's a town of 50,000.
It's highly urbanized.
It's busy, busy, busy.
>> Take a look at the city of
LaCrosse, and it's easy to see
how places like cemeteries can
provide a little pocket of
green, a kind of avian pit stop
for the birds.
Oak Grove joins up with
the LaCrosse marsh on one end,
making for 80 acres
in the heart of the city.
It's inadvertent,
but terrific bird habitat.
The soundtrack tells the story.
>> I hear a ball game going on
behind us, or some kind
of baseball practice.
I can hear car traffic and
vehicles over on Lang Drive.
At the same time, we're hearing
American Redstarts, a Yellow
Warbler way off in the distance,
a Baltimore Oriole,
Chipping Sparrows,
and the works.
So it's this mish-mosh of all
kinds of nature and urban
environment that come together.
>> Okay, they don't mind the
city.
But what draws them here?
Let's go back to that overview
of LaCrosse.
It's a river town, built on the
banks of the Mississippi.
Think interstate
for migrating birds.
>> It's a monstrous river,
in fact the largest river
in the United States that gets
tremendous traffic, both from
people and from wildlife,
particularly migratory birds.
You get millions of birds,
literally, that funnel up the
Mississippi, especially to the
bird that's just migrated up,
and they're exhausted
and they're really hungry.
They drop down and they
have to find something to eat.
If they drop in a bed of gravel
with a couple of mums poking out
of it, that's not a good habitat
for them.
>> This place wasn't landscaped
for birds.
It was landscaped
for aesthetics.
What resulted is a pretty,
peaceful place that is also,
happily, an avian smorgasbord.
Which is great, because
different birds have different
dining demands.
>> This is perfect.
There are young trees.
There are old trees.
There are shrubs down near the
ground level that the thrushes
and the towhees will hop around
in.
So, you've got birds
that are scattered throughout
that entire zone,
from ground layer up to canopy.
They're everywhere.
The birds just love it.
There's an oriole singing above
us right now.
As habitats continue to shrink
worldwide, these kinds of places
are going to provide safe refuge
for birds, ultimately,
if they're done right.
So to have this series
of habitats that are linked
in some way, along their entire
migratory pathway is vital for
the conservation of all species
that migrate back and forth.
>> And every bit of green,
of the right kind, can help.
Thompson takes us
to his backyard.
>> This yard is less than
two-tenths of an acre, and we've
got it crammed wall-to-wall
with flowers and
flowering shrubs and trees.
>> Neighbors see a pretty yard.
Migrating neotrops will see
an avian diner full of bugs,
full of food.
>> This is all basically
native plants.
These are species called
Culver's Root, Bergamot, Rigid
Stem Goldenrod, New England
Aster, and a host of other
things that are all planted
to benefit bugs.
So when this is blossoming, when
it's at the peak of phenology
blossom-wise, in mid-summer,
this place is a nectar factory.
>> It's a food factory
underfoot, too.
Check out the lawn.
>> What I want to point out here
is that this is just filled
with weeds.
We've got clover,
and we've got chickweed,
and we've got plantain,
and we've got dandelions.
I don't make an effort
to get rid of any of them.
The reason I don't is because
monotypic, dense turf grass
is a biological desert.
It doesn't provide
a lot of habitat for anything.
You want to provide plants
that bugs feed on.
Then those in turn feed
bigger bugs.
Those in turn feed birds.
That's what we're trying
to accomplish here.
The Siskens and the Goldfinches
come in and eat the dandelions.
The Chipping Sparrows will eat
these dandelion heads.
Anybody can plant their yard to
make it worthwhile for wildlife.
It's really easy.
It's fun.
It takes a little bit of time to
see it come into maturity, but
it's incredibly satisfying.
And to see the birds respond
when they come in, jackpot.
Mission accomplished.
>> And as if on cue, minutes
later, we hit the jackpot.
>> I just heard
the "chip" back here.
It won't be coming into these,
we're too close, but,
there it is!
Here it comes into
the humming bird feeder.
This is so cool.
Here's a bird that just spent
the winter in Central America.
Somehow, in a miraculous flight,
made it all the way across
the Gulf of Mexico.
This is a bird that weighs
less than a dime.
It flew non-stop across
the Gulf of Mexico and somehow
flew all the way up through
every conceivable hazard
to get to our backyard.
Now it's feeding here
and nesting here.
>> Of course, this
is all backyard
for the birds.
The wintering grounds.
The summer nesting territory.
And the flyways
that stretch between.
Saved,
created,
added to,
by the efforts of governments
and organizations.
But most often,
by the push of individuals.
>> We need committed,
passionate individuals.
>> Good morning.
>> Hi, nice to see you again.
One individual can make
so much difference.
>> In Panama, monies donated
by the birders of Thompson's
conservation birding trip
paid for three years
of operating expenses, including
mist nets, and collection bags,
and materials to collect data,
for a bird banding station run
by researcher Chelina Batista
and her volunteer crew.
>> This is a station, which is
monitoring over winter,
station for migratory birds.
Because we are interested to
know what happened with the bird
that came from the USA, and
they spend their winter here.
>> From deep in the rain forest
from Central America...
To a park in downtown Milwaukee,
Tim Vargo, research director
of the Urban Ecology Center,
oversees another crew
of volunteers.
>> The value is tremendous.
The work that our volunteers
are doing are published
in peer review journals.
>> 13.5 grams.
>> They are doing real science.
>> Miles apart,
working together.
>> If we can save that bird
coming from North America,
we are saving also, our bird.
Or if we save the bird here,
we can save the bird there.
>> Oh, you pretty thing.
Look at you!
>> Birds can connect us.
>> This is so cool.
>> It's just one planet.
>> The birds know it.
>> Hey, sweet thing, how are ya?
If you're happy, I'm happy.
Oh, my god!
That was so incredible!
>> Kerry Jean, you haven't
let a bird go in a while,
do you want to do this one?
>> Volunteer Kerry Jean Burke.
>> You are holding a bird that
might have started in Mexico,
Panama, or somewhere else,
and we're just a tiny part
of its life.
You realize that you're part of
something really big, and yet
really small at the same time.
>> You can go now.
>> There he goes!
>> These small travelers.
>> It's a Canada Warbler.
>> Sky jewels, seldom seen.
>> This might be a juvenile
Nashville Warbler.
>> Reminds us
of the sky we share,
their song
speaks to our connection.
>> We have to work as a team.
We have to look at this
as not just
as two separate countries,
but one land, one big piece
of land for the birds.
>> Major funding
for "Our Birds" was provided
by the people of Alliant Energy,
who bring safe, reliable and
environmentally friendly energy
to keep homes, neighborhoods,
and life in Wisconsin
running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, offering
energy saving ideas on the Web.
And the Animal Dentistry
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and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working
with pet owners and family
veterinarians throughout
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oral disease and dental problems
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Additional funding is provided
by the Paul E. Stry Foundation
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