Some of the neotropical songbirds found in the Cedar Creek watershed. Pictures are by Bob Hines author of Fifty Birds of Town and City, published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and are in the public domain. Among the best-know neotropical migrants in northeast Indiana are shown to the left. Neotropical songbirds are migratory birds that breed in North America and winter in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Allen County, Indiana's largest county has only two remaining forested expanses of sufficient size to provide resting and nesting habitats for neotropical migrant birds. One is the forested dune and swail area of Fox Island County Park. The other is the Cedar Creek forested canyonlands.

In 1997, Friends of Cedar Creek (CCWP) received a grant from the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund to study the status of neotropical songbirds in the Cedar Creek watershed.

Of 88 bird species recorded May 20-June 20, 1997, 48 were neotropical migrant species.

Thirteen of those were "pass through" species and are considered "resters" since their nesting grounds are farther north. But 33 species were within their spring/summer habitat area and are considered "nesters" that breed in this area of Indiana.

Neotropical migrants need deep forest conditions to discourage competitors such as the brown-headed cowbird, which lays its eggs in the nests of other species.

Cowbird hatchlings are larger than those of the host species, and they crowd the host chicks out of the nests or weaken them by taking their food.

To read from Bob Walton's Neopolitian Songbirds click here.

Northern Water Thrush