Important Bird Areas
Pool 19 - Mississippi River (Hancock Co., Henderson Co.)
Pool 19 contains four, five to ten mile tracts with significant numbers of waterfowl (Keokuk to Nauvoo, Nauvoo - Ft. Madison, Ft. Madison - Dallas City, Dallas City - Burlington). These sections each contain anywhere from 10,000 to 150,000 ducks and combined this 40-mile stretch of river can hold over 320,000 ducks at a time (excluding mallards). As an example of the shear volume of ducks that pass through here, at a single time this site can hold up to 13.5% of the continent's population of Canvasbacks in a less than 20-mile stretch of the Mississippi River.
Ornithological Summary
This site was chosen as an IBA because it met the criteria for congregations of waterfowl.