… Sandhill cranes return to the same spots every year, so seeing some birds roosting with the decoys is “very exciting,” said Greg Golet, an avian ecologist with The Nature Conservancy who helps run a program to expand wetland habitat for migratory species called Bird Returns. The Central Valley is one of the most important regions of the Pacific Flyway for cranes and other waterbirds to overwinter or rest and refuel on their way further south. It supports hundreds of resident and migratory species that come here from breeding grounds as far north as the Arctic tundra. … Protecting wild birds and the vanishing native ecosystems they depend on has left ecologists scrambling to create as much habitat as possible, where and when migrating birds need it most.