Wisconsin Important Bird Areas

Conserving the most important places for birds

Upper Mississippi River/Trempeleau National Wildlife & Fish Refuges

Site Description

This area encompasses the Trempeleau refuge and the Wisconsin portion of the Upper Mississippi refuge, covering eight counties in southwest Wisconsin. Habitats include large tracts of floodplain forest, forested wetlands, bluffs, braided channels, open water, riverine wetlands, and prairie.

Upper Mississippi River, photo by USFWS

Upper Mississippi River, photo by USFWS

Upper Mississippi River Refuge, photo by USFWS

Upper Mississippi River Refuge, photo by USFWS

Ornithological Importance

The Mississippi River is one of the great continental flyways along which birds migrate in spring and fall. Hundreds of thousands of waterfowl, songbirds, and raptors use the refuges as stopovers and migratory corridors, including half of the world’s canvasbacks and twenty percent of the world’s tundra swans. The forests, wetlands, and grasslands provide critical breeding habitat for many species, including bitterns, herons, bald eagle, red-shouldered hawk, yellow-billed cuckoo, Acadian flycatcher, prothonotary warbler, cerulean warbler, Louisiana waterthrush, lark sparrow, and eastern meadowlark.