With our Big Year of Birds, we highlighted a variety of opportunities for you to learn more about birds and the role they play in our ecosystems, get started with birding (or challenge yourself to become a more expert birder), and how Three Rivers makes habitats that encourage birds to keep returning.

Birds are an important part of Three Rivers. The numerous species seen in our parks (more than 280!) draw in park users, many often specifically looking for birds, especially uncommon species. The majority of park visitors will casually observe birds and are thrilled when they spot trumpeter swans, bald eagles or other large iconic birds. Many times, it is the common and easily seen species that can get someone excited about birds, such as watching black-capped chickadees at a feeder or mallards swimming along the pond edge. Three Rivers has provided bird-watching opportunities for all levels of interest for many years.

Not only are birds an important way for park users to connect with nature, but they are critical to maintaining a vibrant ecosystem. Because of this, bird habitat management and restoration are key priorities for Three Rivers Wildlife Section.

Habitat Management

More than 280 different species of birds have been seen in our parks. One-hundred-and-thirty-four species have nested here and 54 species live in the parks year-round. Birds use a variety of habitats from forests and prairies to wetlands and lakes in the parks. Each habitat has rare and unusual species that we monitor to make sure our habitat management is beneficial to the birds so that they want to live there.

For some species, that includes nesting structures. Birds like Eastern bluebirds, purple martins and wood ducks nest in natural cavities. We provide with nest boxes as substitutes for those spaces. Ospreys nest on top of dead trees, so we provide nest platforms on top of telephone poles to mimic those trees.

Bringing Back Birds

Worldwide, hundreds of bird species are now extinct because of human activity. In Minnesota, several species of birds were eliminated by overconsumption or habitat loss. Part of wildlife management includes reintroducing native species to Three Rivers.

In the early 1960s, Canada geese and mallards were raised and released from a number of the park reserves. Both reintroductions have been very successful.

Our longest reintroduction program was for trumpeter swans. The first birds were brought to the parks in the mid-1960s and we maintained a captive breeding and feeding program until 2010. Trumpeter swans are now found throughout the state because of both our and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s program.

Most recently, we reintroduced the osprey. During the 1980s, osprey chicks were collected in northern Minnesota and raised in hack towers at Carver Park Reserve. There are now more than 120 nests in the metro — and that number is still growing.