Biologists from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies used a computer model to identify prime habitat characteristics of female Bicknell’s Thrushes on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, where 90 percent of the total population winters. Model results were used to help identify, purchase and create the 1,000-acre private reserve in the Dominican Republic (Reserva Privada Zorzal). 

Male and female Bicknell Thrushes utilize different winter habitats at different elevations on Hispanola. Females were specifically targeted in this model because ornithologists believe their survival is a primary limiting factor for this rare species is estimated at less than 100,000. Bicknell’s Thrushes nest only in high-elevation balsam fir-dominated forests of northeastern states and southeast Canada. Threats to this species’ habitat in both the nesting and wintering ranges make this research a high priority for future conservation of the species. 

  For more information, see this link: https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-17-234.1