canopies formed by mesic tree species such as Sugar Maple, the shrub layer is sparse or absent. Typical bird species include Ovenbird, Eastern Wood Pewee, Least Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Black-capped Chickadee, Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Red-eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush, Red-shouldered Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Ruffed Grouse.

Open water – Includes permanent water bodies such as lakes, rivers, reservoirs, stock ponds, and ditches. Typical bird species include Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, Black Tern and many species of waterfowl.

Grassland – Includes areas covered by grasslands and herbaceous plants. Up to 1/3 of the area could be shrubs/trees, this habitat type includes haylands. Typical bird species include Sharp-tailed Grouse, Eastern Meadowlark, Brown-headed Cowbird, Bobolink, LeConte’s Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, American Kestrel and Sandhill Crane.

Mixed wood forest – Mixed coniferous-deciduous forests are upland forest communities made up of significant amounts of both coniferous trees and broad-leaved deciduous trees. The communities in this class occur on dry to wet-mesic sites, may be early successional or late successional, and originate following either natural catastrophic disturbance or clear-cutting. The logging and burning of coniferous forests that came with European settlement caused widespread loss of pine seed sources and the subsequent conversion of large acreages of coniferous forests to mixed coniferous-deciduous forests and deciduous forests. Typical bird species include Red-breasted Nuthatch, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Wood-pewee, Black-capped Chickadee, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Wetlands: marsh and fens – Grassy, wet areas with standing or slowly moving water. Includes emergent marshes, wet meadows, and fens. All succeed to shrub swamp through brush invasion without fire. Emergent marshes are shallow-basin wetlands that have standing water present during most of the year. They occur throughout Minnesota, typically in association with lakes, ponds, and streams. Marsh bottoms have mineral soils or relatively inorganic sediments, although marshes dominated by cattails often contain floating, peaty mats. The dominant emergent species in marshes are usually grasses and grass-like plants such as cattails, Common Reed Grass, bulrushes, rushes, and some umbrella sedges. Common herbs associated with the emergent graminoids are Broad-leaved Arrowhead, Swamp Milkweed and Water-hemlock. Wet meadow/fen is a broad class of community types whose main shared characteristic is a closed canopy of mid-height graminoids. Dominant species include grasses like Canada Bluejoint, sedges like Wiregrass Sedge, Tussock Sedge and rushes. Forbs such as Spotted Joe-pye Weed, Common Mint, Turtlehead and Swamp Milkweed are conspicuous. Shrub cover in wet meadows ranges from 0 to 70% and is composed willows. Mosses are rare or absent. Found throughout the county. Typical bird species include Yellow Rail, Sora, American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Sedge Wren, Marsh Wren, Swamp Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Harrier, Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Red-winged Blackbird and Yellow-headed Blackbird.