Grassland Birds
Long-term steep declines with several species at the tipping point
In America’s Heartland, more than 320 million acres of grasslands support people’s livelihoods, Indigenous cultures, and ecosystem functions. Yet this crucial biome is in collapse—and grassland birds are rapidly disappearing—due to conversion for row-crop agriculture, woody-plant invasion, and drought.
Collaborative grassroots conservation initiatives across the Midwest and Great Plains are leading proactive efforts to defend what’s left of America’s grasslands, and to restore millions of acres through strategic and coordinated conservation planning and delivery at landscape scales.

eBird Trends for Obligate Grassland Birds

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Losing Grasslands by the Millions
The Great Plains is losing grasslands at a rate of 1 to 2 million acres per year. Solutions—such as conservation easements, improved grazing practices, and invasive-plant removal—also improve groundwater, soil health, and economic resilience for farm communities.
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Obligate Grassland Birds Are in Crisis
More than half of bird species that depend on grasslands for breeding habitat are in steep decline. Grasslands contain eight Tipping Point species, more than any other terrestrial biome. Mountain Plover, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Baird’s Sparrow have declined more than 67% in the past 50 years.
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A Roadmap to Creating More Grasslands
The Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative is an innovative coalition of landowners, government agencies, nonprofit groups, and Indigenous Nations. By catalyzing local, community-led actions guided by science, the initiative is targeting grasslands conservation investments where they’re most likely to succeed.
Good Grazing for Birds and Herds
The National Audubon Society has rolled out two initiatives in the Great Plains to support working grasslands for birds—the Conservation Forage program, which restores marginal cropland back to grassland, and the Conservation Ranching program, which guides grazing practices to create a diverse mosaic of grasslands habitat.
More than 100 ranches have signed up to earn an Audubon Certified bird-friendly habitat designation—adding up to nearly 3 million acres of restored working rangelands from Wisconsin to California.
On the certified Paul Ranch in North Dakota, Audubon biologists helped design a rotational grazing regimen that created a patchwork of mixed-grass habitat and spurred a 20% increase in the local Baird’s Sparrow population from 2017 to 2020.

Baird’s Sparrow
Blue-winged Teal
Bobolink
Cassin’s Sparrow
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Dickcissel
Eastern Meadowlark
Ferruginous Hawk
Grasshopper Sparrow
Greater Prairie-Chicken
Henslow’s Sparrow
Lark Bunting
LeConte’s Sparrow
Long-billed Curlew
Mountain Plover
Northern Shoveler
Sedge Wren
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Sprague’s Pipit
Thick-billed Longspur
Upland Sandpiper
Vesper Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Wilson’s Phalarope