Migratory birds depend on intact stopover habitats to rest and refuel during their journeys, and habitat loss at these sites creates major welfare and conservation threats.
Individual migratory birds that arrive at degraded stopover sites face acute welfare crises: they may be too exhausted to continue, face inadequate food resources, or encounter novel hazards they are not adapted to avoid. Light pollution causes disorientation, leading birds to circle illuminated buildings until they die of exhaustion or collide with glass. Stopover habitat conservation protects individual welfare by ensuring birds can complete their journeys successfully. Restoring coastal wetlands, river floodplains, and prairie grasslands at key migratory nodes benefits billions of animals each year.