Short-Distant Migratory Birds and the Boreal Forest Many land birds that winter in the U.S. migrate in spring to the Boreal Forest of North America. These short-distance migrants breed in the Boreal for many reasons, not least of which is the sheer quantity of unspoiled forest interwoven with wetlands. This past year the Audubon Christmas Bird Count focused on birds that winter in the U.S. but spend their summers in the Boreal Forest. Some of these include: Merlin Northern Shrike Ruby-crowned Kinglet Hermit Thrush Bohemian Waxwing Palm Warbler Le Conte’s Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Harris’s Sparrow Smith’s Longspur Rusty Blackbird Of these 13 species, Northern Shrike, Harris’s Sparrow, Bohemian Waxwing, and especially Rusty Blackbird are declining, according to analysis of data from Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count. For a full account of the population dynamics of these 13 species, see http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/104thSummary.html.