rjzimmerman:

The Wilson’s warbler is just one of the migratory birds that rest and recharge along the Colorado River Delta. (Photo: Sonoran Institute)

Excerpt:

The delta is located at a pinch point along the Pacific Flyway, a seasonal thoroughfare for neotropical migratory birds including many songbirds, shorebirds, raptors and waterfowl species. Nestled within an extremely arid region, habitat in the Delta provides a critical stopover and refueling point for migratory birds — the same exact birds you might see in your backyard or out on a hike somewhere in the western U.S.! Some of my favorite birds, like the western tanager, yellow warbler, Swainson’s hawk, cinnamon teal and the American avocet, all benefit from habitat in the Colorado River Delta.

Fortunately, Sonoran Institute and its partners in a bi-national coalition of environmental organizations called Raise the River have been working for the past 20 years to bring water back to the Delta and restore diverse habitats; evidently, the birds like what we’ve been doing.

In direct response to the pulse flow, the abundance of migratory waterbirds in the Delta was four times higher in 2014 than the previous year and was the highest ever recorded since the start of the surveys in 2002 by our partner, Pronatura Noroeste. Beyond the immediate response to water as evidenced by waterbird species, overall bird abundance and diversity are on average nearly 50 percent higher in our restoration sites than in other areas along the Colorado River in Mexico.

At the Las Arenitas wastewater treatment wetland — a project Sonoran Institute has been working on since 2008 — the number of bird species went from eight to more than 160 in just over five years, with a maximum bird count of 18,000 birds! Our restoration sites provide not only diverse habitat types and structure — open water, marsh, riparian, mesquite bosque and mudflats — but they also provide a food source for many birds.

Why restoring the Colorado River Delta matters