What We Do
Our Services
The Webless Migratory Game Bird Program provides funding for projects that address priority information needs for webless migratory gamebirds. The next anticipated call for proposals will be November 2024.
Our Projects and Initiatives
- Fund research and management projects that address priority information for webless migratory gamebirds
- Harvest management of webless migratory gamebirds
- Coordinate national monitoring programs for webless migratory game birds
Our Laws and Regulations
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act guides what we do. Each year hunting regulations are promulgated for all webless migratory game bird species.
Our Services
The primary purpose of the Webless Migratory Gamebird Program (WMGBP) is to support activities that will improve management of the 16 species of migratory shore and upland game birds (MSUGBs) in North America. The Migratory Shore and Upland Game Bird Working Group, organized through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, developed a set of priority information needs by convening a series of workshops. Priorities identified at the workshops should be used to guide proposal development and will be used by the review committee to select projects that address these priority information needs. The USFWS administers financial assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements), purchase orders, and contracts on a competitive basis for projects and studies that advance the general scientific community's understanding of MSUGB ecology and management and seeks proposals from interested parties.
Our Library
A large component of our Migratory Bird Program centers on the monitoring, research and management of webless migratory game birds (doves, pigeons, woodcock, sandhill cranes, rails, gallinules, coot, moorhen and snipe). Strategies were developed for identifying and funding research and management needs for these species. These strategies guide project selection through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Webless Migratory Game Bird Program, which provides the cooperative funding.
Resources identified in this section include conservation or management plans, funding and harvest strategies, banding assessments, monitoring programs, habitat management guides, and status reports for many of these webless migratory game bird species.
Our Species
The 16 species of migratory shore and upland game birds eligible for funding through the Webless Migratory Game Bird Program.
- King Rail, Rallus elegans
- Clapper Rail, Rallus longirostris
- Virginia Rail, Rallus limicola
- Sora, Porzana carolina
- Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio martinica
- Common Gallinule, Gallinula chloropus
- American Coot, Fulica americana
- Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis
- Wilson’s Snipe, Gallinago delicata
- American Woodcock, Scolopax minor
- Band-tailed Pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata
- Scaly-naped Pigeon, Patagioenas squamosa
- Zenaida Dove, Zenaida aurita
- Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
- White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica
- White-tipped Dove, Leptotila verreauxi
