Research

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Engineered Sandbars Dont Measure Up for Nesting Plovers

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications takes advantage of a natural experiment created by the region’s 2011 floods, demonstrating that the engineered habitat doesn’t provide the benefits of sandbars created by nature.

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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Urban Hawks Leave the City for the Burbs

Cooper’s hawks (Accipiter cooperii) have taken well to city life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as they expand their range to non-urban areas, they’re displacing and out-competing their counterparts, a recent study found.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Urban Cooper's Hawks Outcompete Their Rural Neighbors

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applicationsexamines the population dynamics of Cooper's Hawks in urban Albuquerque, New Mexico, and finds that city-born birds aren't just thriving—they're actually forcing their rural neighbors out of their nest sites.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Old-growth forest at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Oregon Cascades

Study: Complex, Old-growth Forests May Protect Some Bird Species

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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Birds Teach Scientists How to Improve Streamside Restoration

A new study by a team of researchers from Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO), in partnership with the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP), sheds light on how best to understand the success of river restoration efforts: follow the birds.

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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Timing of Migration Is Changing for Songbirds on the Pacific Coast

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications uses a long-term dataset from the Pacific coast and shows that the timing of bird migration in the region has shifted by more than two days in both spring and fall over the past two decades.

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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Hazards on Migration Route May Imperil Arctic Shorebirds

Arctic shorebird populations have been dwindling for more than a decade, but recent research suggests that habitat loss and other factors along their migratory routes may be more responsible for their declines than conditions in their Arctic breeding grounds.

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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Statistical Tool to Improve Understanding of Migratory Connectivity

Emerging technology, such as tracking and genomics, is allowing researchers to get a more complete picture of migration and the threats migratory species face throughout the year. With a new statistical tool from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC), researchers can take that data to better understand the strength of migratory connectivity in a quantitative way.

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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Farmland Milkweed Supports More Monarch Eggs

New research from Canada indicates that monarch butterflies lay more eggs on milkweed near fields than along roads, suggesting habitat restoration efforts may be more fruitful in agricultural environments.

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Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Study: Lead Tackle Sinking New Hampshire Loons

Lead tackle is responsible for nearly half the deaths of adult loons in New Hampshire, a recent study found, reducing the bird's population in the state by 43 percent.

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Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Declining Baby Wood Thrush Need Forests to Survive Drought

According to a new study by biologists at Virginia Tech and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, the offspring of a certain songbird, the wood thrush, are more likely to survive drought in larger forest plots that offer plenty of shade and resources.

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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Supporting Owls Compatible with Managing Forests for Fire, Drought

In what is believed to be the largest spotted owl study in terms of area analyzed, remote sensing technology is providing a more precise look at habitat preferences for the sensitive species with implications for greater flexibility in forest management.

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Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Monarch Butterflies Disappearing from Western North America

Monarch butterfly populations from western North America have declined far more dramatically than was previously known and face a greater risk of extinction than eastern monarchs, according to a new study in the journal Biological Conservation.

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Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Songbird Populations May Indicate Trouble in NW Forests

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications presents ten years of data from banding stations across northern California and southern Oregon and offers new hints on what's driving changes in the region's songbird populations.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

New Research Provides Hope for Birds in Tropical Rainforests

A new study by Dr. Steven Latta, director of conservation and field research at the National Aviary, and collaborators, demonstrates how young, recovering tropical forest fragments can be more valuable for bird conservation in tropical rainforests than once thought.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Song Experiments Reveal 21 Possible New Tropical Bird Species

Birds often choose their mates based on song, making it a key factor in separating species. However, analyzing spectrograms can only tell us so much—the characteristics that birds hone in on when identifying potential mates may not be the same ones scientists notice in audio recordings.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

LDWF Bird Radio Tracking Project To Double in Capacity

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Coastal Louisiana Array Project, used to track radio-tagged birds, will more than double in capacity by July 2018 thanks to a generous grant from ConocoPhillips.

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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Prairie-Chicken Nests Appear Unaffected by Wind Energy Facility

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications suggests that for one grassland bird species of concern—the Greater Prairie-Chicken—wind energy infrastructure has little to no effect on nesting.

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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Birds at Greater Risk of Hitting Windows in Rural Areas

Nearly 1 billion birds in North America are estimated to die annually from striking windows or building exteriors, and researchers conducting a recent comprehensive study published in Biological Conservation of the phenomenon found the threat is greater for birds in rural areas than it is for urban birds.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Radar Reveals Steep Declines in Kauai's Seabird Populations

A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications takes a fresh look at two decades of radar data—and comes to worrying conclusions about the status of the Hawaiian Petrel and the Newell's Shearwater.

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