This is Bird Note.

Block Island is 11 square miles of sand, shrubs, and houses off the coast of Rhode Island.

Kim Gaffett, a lifelong resident of the island,

catches birds and puts metal bands on their legs

to track them.

You'll say, they always want to know,

what's your favorite bird?

All right, well, my favorite bird is the one that's in my hand right then.

And so right at this moment, my favorite bird is a white-throated sparrow.

The bird banding efforts have revealed how migratory birds make use of their

layovers on Block Island. Birds crossing the ocean needs safe stopoversights like

this one to find food and refuel for their journey

says biologist Scott McWilliams. The typical songbird migrant leaves at dusk

the previous day and flies for much of the night without eating, without drinking,

and it's using all of whatever it can put in the fuel tank and make it to a stop oversight by the next morning.

And so what happens at those key stop oversights like Block Island is first of all they have to rebuild their

guts because they've made a large migration.

Thanks to efforts by Gaffett and other conservationists, Block Island has protected nearly half

of its land as wildlife habitat where birds can find food and shelter.

A stunning example for other island communities.

You can hear more about how Block Island helps migrating birds on the threatened

podcast. Listen in your podcast app or at birdnote.org. I'm Ari Daniel.

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