These components make up an animal s habitat . While animals have different needs and thus different habitat requirements, migratory birds require a wide variety of habitat types. Waterfowl are dependent on wetlands, which are among the most productive ecosystems on earth and home to more endangered species than any other type of habitat.
Wetlands also support shorebirds, wading and marsh birds, and songbirds.
It is not surprising that wetlands-dependent birds have experienced significant declines. The United States has lost more than one-half of the wetlands that existed prior to European settlement. Today, fewer than 93 million acres remain, and wetlands continue to decline by about 200,000 acres each year. Migratory songbirds, including warblers, vireos, finches, flycatchers, thrushes, swifts, tanagers, and orioles, require intact forests and grasslands throughout their migratory range. Vast woodlands once covered much of eastern North America from the boreal forest of Canada to the pine forests of the southeastern United States.