Environment for the Americas

Follow the flowers. Protect the pollinators.

Every year, migrating pollinators cross enormous distances by following flowers. Monarch butterflies move through landscapes that offer milkweed and nectar. Western hummingbirds, including Rufous Hummingbirds, travel from breeding areas to wintering grounds and need food and shelter along the way.

Both depend on flowering plants and respond to environmental change as they travel across regions and international borders. When habitats change along their routes, conservationists need reliable information and people on the ground to monitor conditions and respond.

Environment for the Americas has almost 20 years of experience working across flyways to protect migratory birds. Including monarchs in our work, especially given the needs they share with hummingbirds, is a natural extension of that mission. Through both programs, we train early career biologists, support projects that plant pollinator habitat, and work to better understand the migrations of these long-distance travelers.

What we want to learn

We want to learn how the migrations of hummingbirds and monarchs connect, which places and habitats they use along their journeys, and where the threats are highest. With that knowledge, we can target conservation where it is needed most.

Monarch conservation

Monarchs need milkweed to raise their young and nectar to fuel their travels. Our monarch work combines pollinator plantings, training for early career biologists, and research on migration.

In 2027, we plan to tag 50 or more monarchs in the Southwest using Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) tags. Each tag adds to what we can learn about monarch movement. We cannot guarantee how any individual tag will perform. What we can do is collect information that helps conservationists make better decisions.

Hummingbird conservation and the Western Hummingbird Partnership

Many western hummingbirds travel between breeding areas, stopover sites, and wintering grounds that cross national borders. No single organization can protect them alone.

The Western Hummingbird Partnership (WHP) is a coalition of researchers, educators, and agencies in Canada, the United States, and Mexico working to conserve western hummingbirds. It formed after a 2009 workshop, and its stated mission is to maintain thriving hummingbird populations in western North America through habitat restoration and enhancement, population monitoring, research, and education and outreach. Environment for the Americas facilitates the partnership. The partnership gives donors a way to support hummingbirds as part of a larger, cross-border effort. 

Testimonials

"The impact of becoming a Bird City will be immeasurable: people working with conservation will feel more empowered and the population will feel more responsible for bird care. Most importantly, children will be born in Brazil’s first Bird City and will proudly carry this flag, being ambassadors for birds throughout their lives.” 

-Bruno Lima, our partner in Peruibe, Brazil, comments on the country's first Bird City established in October 2024.

"Being part of a diversity conservation corps and being surrounded by people that look like me, that have had similar experiences, made me feel like I belonged…This [internship] experience shaped me to be a more confident and prepared emerging leader in conservation." 

-Diana Rodriguez, Crew Lead 2023 -Saguaro National Park

"Environment for the Americas has the quality education materials we've been looking for." 

-Detroit Audubon Society