Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: What Happens When Birds Get Wet?
American Robin in birdbath
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Ecosystem Engineers on America's Serengeti

Ecology of the Western plains
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Mountain Plover
© Ron Knight FCC

Some birds require habitats created by other animals. Two such landscape shapers were the American bison and the prairie dog. With the extermination of millions of bison and prairie dogs, species such as this Mountain Plover and the Burrowing Owl, which require barren ground, greatly declined. The American Prairie Foundation is restoring prairie, removing fences and reintroducing bison. Prairie dog colonies are expanding. We can restore both birds and some of "America's Serengeti!"  Learn more about this work at Americanprairie.org.

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits
BirdNote®
Ecosystem Engineers

Written by Gordon Orians

This is BirdNote!
[Sound of prairie wind and bison snort]
Some birds require habitats created by other animals. 
[Prairie dog whistles]
Two such landscape shapers were the American bison and the prairie dog. For thousands of years, these animals generated a mosaic of vegetation on the Great Plains, ranging from nearly bare earth in bison wallows and prairie dog towns, to lightly grazed tall grasslands. Each benefited particular species of birds. With the extermination of millions of bison and prairie dogs, species such as Burrowing Owls that require barren ground greatly declined.
[Call of Burrowing Owl]
The cattle that replaced the bison and prairie dogs are also “ecosystem engineers.” But cattle, constrained by fences, graze nearly all areas quite heavily. Birds adapted to this degree of grazing live sustainably with cattle. But birds which prefer ungrazed or lightly grazed vegetation, have become rare, such as Chestnut-collared Longspurs.
[Song of Chestnut-collared Longspur]
The American Prairie Foundation is restoring a rich and varied prairie in northeastern Montana. They’re removing fences and reintroducing bison to lands they’ve not occupied for more than a century. Prairie dog colonies are also expanding.
Ecosystems are resilient. By working with natural processes and employing the services of nature’s ecosystem engineers, we can restore both birds and some of the lost grandeur of America’s Serengeti!
[Sound of prairie + wind]
There’s more to this story at birdnote.org.
###
Sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. American bison recorded by G.F. Budney; Prairie Dogs by S. Benson-Amram; Call of Burrowing Owl by G.A. Keller; Song of Chestnut-collard Longspur by G.A. Keller.  [Did not use song of Sprague’s Pipit and song of Baird’s Sparrow but would be good for future ref.]
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org       February 2017/2020  Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  SotB-prairierestoration-02-2011-02-28 

Gordon Orians
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Support More Shows Like This
Tagshabitat protection State of the Birds grassland

Related Resources

American Prairie Foundation: restoring "America's Serengeti"American Bird Conservancy has more!Mountain Plover - More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus)

Charadrius montanus

Sights & Sounds

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy