Cheniere Forest as Stopover Habitat for Migrant Landbirds: Immediate Effects of Hurricane Rita By Wylie Barrow, Jr., Paul Chadwick, Brady Couvillion, Thomas Doyle, Stephen Faulkner, Clint Jeske, Tommy Michot, Lori Randall, Chris Wells, and Scott Wilson It is not known whether en route fall migratory birds (August–October) are likely to suffer more from direct or secondary effects of hurricanes. On September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita wreaked havoc on Louisiana’s coast by toppling trees over vast areas and by stripping away microhabitats that harbor the invertebrates and produce the fruits upon which migrant landbirds depend (e.g., canopy foliage, vine tangles, epiphytes, leaf litter, and thickets of perennial plant species). Such transient effects of a hurricane on wildlife food resources are poorly understood, but these effects may have long- term consequences for some wildlife species. Introduction Many species of landbirds that breed in eastern North America migrate over the western Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico to winter in the West Indies, Central America, or South America. Because the continent-wide pattern of migration concentrates these birds in relation to ecological barriers, such as the Gulf of Mexico (Moore and others, 1993), coastal woodlands have been identified as stopover sites or staging areas of special concern to migratory landbirds (Barrow and others, 2005). Stopover Habitat Chenieres play an important role in the Nearctic- Neotropical bird migration system by virtue of their geographic position along important migration pathways. Twice each year, millions of songbirds, most all species of the eastern United States, swarm Louisiana’s coast as they migrate across and around the Gulf of Mexico. These chenieres serve as safe havens that migrating landbirds use in spring and autumn to rest and replenish energy reserves before continuing migration (Barrow and others, 2000a). At least 75 species of migratory birds regularly use these scarce wooded habitats prior to or immediately after crossing the Gulf of Mexico (an additional Many large flocks of birds flew over, coming from the north and flying to the southwest. They were more varied in kind than any we had seen before and they were landbirds. . . . I know that most of the islands discovered by the Portuguese have been found because of birds. Christopher Columbus, east of Bermuda, October 7, 1492 (Butler, 2000)