News and Stories

By Team Bird keepers Cody Sowers & Kim Klosterman

For the third straight year, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden supported a wonderful project in northern Michigan; the Great Lakes piping plovers. Northern Michigan in the summer is quite a great place to be. Temperatures in the mid to high 70s. Lots of lakes and blue skies. And this season, lots of piping plover eggs.

The Great Lakes Piping Plover population had quite the year in 2025. 88 pairs were observed by a dedicated team of volunteers keeping their spotting scopes active looking for birds along the various shorelines. 45 eggs from those pairs were salvaged this season, and from those 45 we ended up with 36 chicks released back into their natural habitat. Those captive reared chicks went through a very fast plover education camp before being released near other adults so they can tag along on their southern migration.

This season, Team Bird was lucky enough to do a variety of field work; from catching wild chicks to band, raising a ton of babies at the plover center at UM’s bio station, and releasing grown chicks out on the shore of Lake Superior.

Some overall numbers for 2025:

• 88 pairs observed, highest since being listed on the endangered species list.
• 140 wild chicks banded.
• 10% of all nesting adults were captive reared birds.
• 53% of 2024 captive reared birds returned from migration.
• GLPP are now nesting again on all 5 Great Lakes, in 4 US states and in Canada. This is the first time since the 1980s!

Thanks again to Team Bird for supporting us taking the time to go up north for this project, and thanks to the Cincinnati Zoo for continuing their support for this great project!