Migratory songbirds depend on stopover sites to rest and refuel during migration — the loss and degradation of these critical habitats creates welfare consequences for billions of exhausted birds annually.
Migratory songbirds arriving at stopover sites after overnight flights are physiologically depleted — fat reserves consumed, muscles stressed, immune function suppressed. Exhausted birds that land in degraded habitat without adequate food cannot recover before continuing migration. Some die at stopover sites; others push on in suboptimal condition and fail to complete migration. The welfare harm of stopover habitat loss is experienced by billions of individual birds annually — each one needing rest and food that disappearing habitat no longer provides.