Maryland and DC's Special Birds - Page 3

Maryland may be one of the smaller states, but it still manages to pack a diversity of habitats into its compact size. The eastern side has beach dunes and Chesapeake Bay marshlands, while the western half has Piedmont oak forests and Appalachian Mountain pine groves. Add to this its mid-Atlantic location, with a mix of northern and southern fauna, and Maryland is ensured a wide variety of birds all year round. Before much was leveled to create a city for our national government, the District of Columbia was much like Maryland, covered in forests and swamps and bounded by rivers, but despite its paltry size and relative lack of natural habitats, over 300 bird species have been seen in D.C.