Focal Species

Emperor Goose
Brant (Pacific Black)
Canada Goose (Dusky)
Trumpeter Swan (Rocky Mountain
population)
American Black Duck
Mottled Duck
Northern Pintail
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Common Eider (American and Pacific)
White-winged Scoter
Yellow-billed Loon
Laysan Albatross
Black-footed Albatross
Black-capped Petrel
Great Shearwater
Audubon’s Shearwater
Reddish Egret
Golden Eagle
Bald Eagle
Yellow Rail
Black Rail
King Rail
Snowy Plover (Interior U.S. and
Gulf Coast populations)
Wilson’s Plover
Mountain Plover
American Oystercatcher
Black Oystercatcher
Upland Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Hudsonian Godwit
Marbled Godwit
Red Knot (C.c. rufa and C. c. roselaari)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (Eastern
population)
Dunlin (C. a. arcticola)
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
American Woodcock (Eastern and
Central management unit)
Black Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Common Tern (Great Lakes population)
Kittlitz’s Murrelet
Burrowing Owl
Bicknell’s Thrush
Wood Thrush
Bendire’s Thrasher
Sprague’s Pipit
Golden-winged Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Grasshopper Sparrow
Henslow’s Sparrow
Painted Bunting
Bobolink
Tricolored Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird
‘I’iwi

Focal Species Strategy

To better measure its success in achieving its bird conservation priorities and mandates, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program initiated a Focal Species strategy for migratory birds. The Focal Species strategy involves campaigns for selected species to provide explicit, strategic, and adaptive sets of conservation actions required to return the species to healthy and sustainable levels.

The goal of the Focal Species strategy is to measure the success
in achieving bird conservation and to increase accountability. This is one of several ways that the Service measures bird conservation success. The Service remains committed to landscape-scale, integrated bird conservation for the full array of species of management concern. The Focal Species approach is just one component of the  Migratory Bird Program and complements other work on migratory birds and their habitats.

To select Focal Species, the Migratory Bird Program identifies species from the Birds of Management Concern list that need
investment because they: 1) have high conservation need, 2) are
representative of a broader group of species sharing the same or
similar conservation needs, 3) act as a potential unifier for partnerships, and/or 4) have a high likelihood that factors affecting status can be realistically addressed.

Focal Species are identified over the short term to receive specific attention. These species/populations are not the only ones that meet the criteria, but are species the Migratory Bird Program will focus conservation efforts over the next five years.

Fact Sheet
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers