Because it’s not realistic to develop a separate conservation strategy for every bird species in the Y2Y region, 20 representative species were selected. Each of the 20 focal species relies on at least one of the different habitat types in Y2Y, and has a broad geographic range.

How did we decide what 20 species to focus on? First, Y2Y worked with a group of avian experts to identify 109 species of concern. This designation was based on criteria used by Partners in Flight, an international organization working on avian conservation in Canada, the US, and Mexico.

Here are the criteria used to identify Y2Y’s 109 species of concern:

• Population size – total number of adults in the global population.
• Breeding distribution – geographic extent of species’ breeding range.
• Non-breeding distribution – geographic extent of species’ non-breeding range.
• Threats to breeding – current and probable conditions that threaten the ability of bird populations to survive and successfully reproduce.
• Threats to non-breeding – effects of current and probable conditions that threaten populations’ ability to survive over the non-breeding season.
• Population trend – changes in population size over the past 30 years.

After identifying the 109 species of concern, Y2Y avian experts defined 21 broad-scale habitat types representing all bird communities within the region. They then identified primary and secondary habitat types for each of the 109 species. After a multi-step statistical modeling procedure, Y2Y researchers identified which 20 species could most accurately represent the needs of all 109 species of concern.

Click here to see a list of 20 focal species.