Researchers believe they may have discovered a previously unknown, but potentially important flyway that songbirds are using as a shortcut across the Gulf of Maine during fall migration, according to wildlife biologists with the University of Maine and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. During a bird banding study on several national wildlife refuge islands last fall, more than 6,000 songbirds representing 75 species were captured, far exceeding the number captured at long-running banding stations elsewhere, says Rebecca Holberton, a UMaine biologist who collaborated on the study. The researchers estimate that up to a half million or more songbirds could be using the Metinic Island area on their way from the Canadian Maritimes to the southern Maine mainland. For the past two years, researchers from the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge and National Audubon Society have banded songbirds on Seal Island. The effort was expanded this past season (mid-August to mid-October) to the refuges on Petit Manan and Metinic islands.

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