How will migratory birds in South America adapt to future climate change?

by Natália Stefanini Linked paper: Future climate change will impact the size and location of breeding and wintering areas of migratory thrushes in South America by Natália Stefanini Da Silveira, Maurício Humberto Vancine, Alex E. Jahn, Marco Aurélio Pizo, and Thadeu Sobral-Souza, Ornithological Applications  The answer to the question of how migratory birds in South …

Species Limits and Taxonomy in Birds

How we determine what entities we call species has major impacts on ornithology at many levels; the units used in every field of scientific research and that are the focus of conservation and legislative planning are the result of this data-driven process. Once species limits are decided, the scientific and English names that we use …

Management of breeding birds using conspecific attraction requires better knowledge of when, where, and why it is likely to be effective

By Christa L. LeGrande-Rolls and Jonathon J. Valente Linked paper: Conspecific attraction for conservation and management of terrestrial breeding birds: Current knowledge and future research directions by Jonathon J. Valente, Christa L. LeGrande-Rolls, James W. Rivers, Anna M. Tucker, Richard A. Fischer, and Matthew G. Betts, Ornithological Applications In 2012, we were working on a …

Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day!

World Migratory Bird Day and Global Big Day are this Saturday, 8 May! We hope you’ll join us in this global celebration to raise awareness about the importance of conserving migratory birds and their habitats. We’ve pulled together a few Wing Beat posts from this past year that highlight research findings from migration-related papers that …

How a labor of love became a multi-decade study of climate and bird dynamics on a historic subalpine Sierra Nevada study site

By Meredith Swett Walker, The Institute for Bird Populations Linked Paper: Climate variation drives dynamics and productivity of a subalpine breeding bird community by David F. DeSante and James F. Saracco, Ornithological Applications Back in the summer of 1977, Dr. David DeSante, then an assistant professor at Reed College, took a group of students to …

Revealing the evolutionary enigmas of the song of a neotropical rainforest bird on the Brazilian coast

By Adriana Acero and Marcos Maldonado-Coelho Linked Paper: Ecological and evolutionary drivers of geographic variation in songs of a Neotropical suboscine bird: The Drab-breasted Bamboo Tyrant (Hemitriccus diops, Rhynchocyclidae), by Adriana Carolina Acero-Murcia, Fábio Raposo do Amaral, Fábio C. de Barros, Tiago da Silva Ribeiro, Cristina Y. Miyaki, Marcos Maldonado-Coelho, Ornithology. Who has ever wondered …

High-intensity Flight Feather Molt: A Cryptic but Critical Phase of the Annual Cycle of Migratory Warblers

By Ronald L. Mumme Linked paper: High-intensity flight feather molt and comparative molt ecology of warblers of eastern North America, by Ronald L. Mumme, Robert S. Mulvihill, David Norman, Ornithology. The lives of migratory songbirds inhabiting the north temperate zone are built around three dramatic and energetically demanding phases of their annual cycle: spring migration, …

Migratory Gems of the American West

By William DeLuca Linked Paper: The Colorado River Delta and California’s Central Valley are critical regions for many migrating North American landbirds, by William V. DeLuca, Tim Meehan, Nat Seavy, Andrea Jones, Jennifer Pitt, Jill L. Deppe, and Chad B. Wilsey, Ornithological Applications. The Colorado River Delta and California’s Central Valley are iconic features of …

Enigmatic Bird Declines in Pristine Amazon Rainforest

After a field season netting birds in Amazonian rainforest fragments and second growth, Louisiana State University (LSU) Ph.D. candidate Erik Johnson was excited to work in undisturbed forest for his 2008 field season. Within a few weeks, he had seen many of the specialist birds absent from the disturbed landscape.

The Cryptic Decline of an Iconic Northern Species

In the excitement and confusion of all-night loon capture, you don’t have much time to think. With a goal each night of catching five lakes’ worth of loons, your team of four loon researchers works steadily and by routine.