A couple of times a month, a group of migrant women and their children gather to plant shrubs and flowers in Baltimore's expansive Patterson Park.

The gardens feed and shelter migratory birds as part of the Patterson Park Audubon Center's Bird Ambassadors program.

Neotropical birds like the black-throated blue warbler and the Baltimore oriole migrate from the East Coast down to places like Mexico and Central America for the winter, says Susie Creamer, director of urban education and conservation at the center.

"If you think about a bird flying above, up the East Coast, city after city, seeing a big chunk of green right here is a great spot to stop, rest and refuel," she says.

The women tending the park's gardens come from countries like Mexico and El Salvador. To them, the birds' journeys look a lot like their own. --Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, Lauren Migaki

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