Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative

Resources for landowners and producers interested in grassland bird conservation

The resources on this page provide an excellent place to start if you are looking to bring bird-friendly practices onto your landscape. 

Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes

• Fact Sheet: Field Management Guidelines for Virginia’s Grassland & Shrubland Birds
• Pamphlet: Shrub & Grassland Birds of Virginia
• Pamphlet: Bringing Back the Butcher Bird
• Video: Bringing Back the Birds | 2020 Tedx Talk by Dr. Amy Johnson

The Piedmont Environmental Council

• Guide: Managing Land in the Piedmont for the Benefit of Birds and Other Wildlife

American Farmland Trust

• Video: Sustainable Grazing Project

  
Natural Resources Conservation Service​ (USDA)

• Factsheet: Extend Grazing with Summer Stockpiling
• Report: Managing Working Lands for Northern Bobwhite
• Report: Management Considerations for Grassland
  Birds in Northeastern Haylands and
  Pasturelands
• Factsheet: Delay hay cuttings to allow birds to successfully fledge young

American Bird Conservancy

Factsheet: 

Ag Allies

• Factsheet: Ag Allies Grassland Bird Project
• Factsheet: Delay Mowing for Grassland Habitat Conservation

VA Cooperative Extension

• Website: Graze 300 program
• Factsheet: Grassland Agriculture & Our Environment: What the Public Needs to Know 

Cornell Cooperative Extension

• Factsheet: Hayfield Management and Grassland Bird Conservation
• Factsheet: Enhancing Pastures for Grassland Bird Habitat

National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative

• Publication: Beef, Grass, and Bobwhites – Quail Management in Eastern Native Warm-Season Grass Pastures

Mass Audubon

• Packet: Best Management Practices for Nesting Grassland Birds

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Credit Valley Conservation

• Factsheet: Protecting Grassland Bird Habitat

Southern Fire Exchange

• Factsheet: Growing-season Burns and Ground-nesting Birds

Virginia Forage & Grassland Council

• Factsheet: Grassland Agriculture and Our Environment: What the Public Needs to Know
• Factsheet: Conversion of tall fescue to NWSG for greater livestock performance and better environmental outcomes