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Central Iowa birding opportunities abound at Chichaqua-Neal Smith Bird Conservation Area

A redwing blackbird stops briefly at a feeder in front of the bird blind at Chichaqua Bottoms in Iowa. The area is part of the popular Chichaqua-Neal Smith Bird Conservation in eastern Polk and western Jasper counties. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR)

Dedicated in the spring of 2005, Iowa’s Chichaqua-Neal Smith Grassland Bird Conservation Area is an important stop along the bird migration. Based on weather radar, an estimated 800 million birds migrate through Iowa in the spring, and up to one billion in the fall, which puts Iowa in the top five states in the country for volume.
“Iowa is globally important for migration and it’s important to have habitat available during the migration as a stopover,” said Anna Buckardt Thomas, avian ecologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

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