WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has established nearly $4 million in federal funding to help support 16 research and restoration projects across the Great Lakes region. Those projects include three that are focused on threatened species in Michigan.

The Smithsonian Institution will get one of the largest grants in the plan, which is approximately $316,000 to study the population dynamics of the Kirtland’s warbler.

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The Kirtland’s warbler was removed from the federal endangered species list in October 2019 but is still considered a threatened species in Michigan.

The little bird lives in pockets across the northern end of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the Upper Peninsula, and places in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada.