Ornithology Commons^™

Quantifying The Decline In Avian Biodiversity: A Global Crisis And Its Implications For Environmental Education, Canaline Osaka

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

People care about what they love—and it’s easy to love--and fall in love, with birds. The

opportunities to promote bird diversity are legion, and applicable throughout K-12 education. For example, the Eastern Bluebird needs to nest in the cavities of dead trees, a habitat drastically denuded by large scale farming—or in specialized nesting boxes. A nationwide effort to build and install these boxes has brought the population back to healthy numbers since its 1970 low point. (Once one knows what they look like, one cannot miss these roadside homes—Western Bluebirds also benefit.) Students can also engineer bird houses and deters, …

Avian Detection Data And Environmental Covariates For Utah, Usa Over The Years 2017-2021, Amanda L. Hayes-Puttfarcken

Browse all Datasets

Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) detection data for the state of Utah, USA, and LANDFIRE uncharacteristic exotic Departure Score data over Utah during our study period, as well as additional environmental covariates used to make the model more ecologically accurate. Environmental covariates include average May precipitation, average June temperature, distance to the nearest road, percent canopy cover, and the percent of three habitat types as defined by LANDFIRE; open tree canopy, herbaceous, and shrubland.

Tracking Phenological Shifts Of Black Guillemots Cepphus Grylle In The Gulf Of Maine, Jocelyn L. Little

Student Publications

Rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine has coincided with changes in phenology across trophic levels. Phenological change has yet to be studied in black guillemots (Cepphus grylle), a widely distributed benthic forager that is showing population decline in the region. Because black guillemots nest in burrows, their phenology can be challenging to study. I developed methods to track black guillemot phenology on Petit Manan Island, a seabird breeding colony in the Gulf of Maine. Specifically, I asked Q1) Can daily tower count data be used to predict black guillemot breeding phenology? Q2) How is black guillemot breeding phenology shifting …

The Nebraska Bird Review (March 2025) 93(1), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Winter Field Report, December 2024–February 2025, by W. Ross Silcock
2024–2025 Christmas Bird Counts, by Don Paseka
Annual Color Photo Section
Annual Treasurer’s Report for 2024, by Jan Johnson
Subscription and Organization Information

Annual Color Photo Section

Nebraska Bird Review

The following seven pages show examples of this year’s theme: birds feeding or carrying food.

Osprey with striped bass
Spotted Sandpiper with beetle
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher with insect
Male Pine Grosbeak with green ash seeds
Merlin eating sparrow
Whooping Crane carrying ear of corn
Yellow-billed Cuckoo with harvestman spider
Black-billed Magpie eating grain
Red-tailed Hawk with plains garter snake
Summer Tanager with hackberry emperor butterfly
Cattle Egret with bullfrog
Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk eating garter snake
Red-breasted Merganser eating fish
Juvenile White Ibis eating unidentified item
Bohemian Waxwing eating crab apples
Rose-breasted Grosbeak eating sunflower seeds
Loggerhead Shrike eating dragonfly
Yellow-crowned Night …

2024–2025 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

For the second year in a row, all twenty CBCs [Christmas Bird Counts] were run during the 2024–2025 season. The weather was generally cooperative, although five circles reported fog and two others had rain. Branched Oak-Seward was postponed a week due to icy conditions on the originally scheduled day. The average high temperature for all circles on count day was 41 and the average low temperature was 22. Because December had remained relatively mild, there was a good deal of open water, which encouraged many species of water birds to remain. Consequently, most of the circles reported species totals higher …

Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Treasurer’S Report, December 31, 2024, Jan Johnson

Nebraska Bird Review

No abstract provided.

Winter Field Report, December 2024–February 2025, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Since I started a few years ago to compare each season’s reports with the status of each species as presented in BONO (Species Accounts – Birds of Nebraska – Online), I had expected that “Routine reports” would apply to an increasing number of species as the BONO database firmed up, but this hasn’t happened. My comments from last winter continue to be valid this winter, now for the third winter in a row: As was the case for winter 2022–2023, the big general story was the large number of reports of tardy fall migrants and unexpectedly northerly occurrences in mid-winter… …

Impact Of Nature-Based Tourism On Bird Vocalization Rate In The Bajo Del Tigre Reserve, Monteverde, Costa Rica, Abby K. Bressette, Adriana Arias Aguilar

Environmental Studies Publications

Nature-based tourism benefits economies, communities, and conservation initiatives, but it can also have unintended negative effects on wildlife. For birds, vocal communication is essential, yet it can be disrupted by anthropogenic noise. In this study, I used passive recording to examine how human visitation impacts the rate of bird vocalizations in the Bajo del Tigre Reserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Overall, bird vocalization rate was not affected by visitation (p > 0.05), but species-specific differences were found. Vocalizations of the lesser greenlet showed no significant change with visitation (p > 0.05). In contrast, the orange-billed nightingale-thrush exhibited a decrease in vocalization rates …

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Emily A. Patton

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This is a masters Thesis for MS in Environmental Biology containing four chapters including a literature review, grant proposal, journal manuscript, and stakeholders report on a current environmental issue. (1) Noise Pollution and Avian Communication in Urban Ecosystems: When the Natural World Struggles to Hear Itself. Urban noise masks essential bird vocalizations, which harms avian fitness. Most species are displaced, and those few urban birds which counteract this noise with song adaptations likely experience trade-offs. America's noise policy remains undeveloped, threatening the health of both humans and avian wildlife (2) Application of Noise Barrier Technology for the Restoration of Urban …

Examining The Effects Of Songbird Nest Boxes And Habitat On Avian And Arthropod Communities In A Vineyard Ecosystem, Eleanor Macdonald

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Agricultural expansion threatens biodiversity, but integrating insectivorous birds into vineyard ecosystems may support both conservation and ecosystem services. We tested how nest boxes and habitat composition influence avian and arthropod communities in Napa Valley vineyards using a before-after, control-impact experiment across 20 sites. During the 2023-2024 breeding seasons we conducted avian point counts, sampled key pest and beneficial arthropods, and collected fecal samples from adult and nestling tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) to detect vineyard pest DNA. Nest boxes significantly increased swallow and bluebird abundance within one year; swallow responses were strongest …

Epigenetic Potential Remains Stable Over 100 Years After Introduction, Danielle Dawkins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Introduced species provide important insights into organismal behavioral responses. Epigenetic mechanisms are one of the various ways in which behaviors can be modified, particularly through DNA methylation. Through such mechanisms, phenotypic changes can occur in response to environmental changes, allowing an organism to be more plastic. Epigenetic potential (EP) represents the capacity for an organism to be epigenetically modified, and can be measured by counting CpG motifs; cytosine adjacent to guanine within a DNA sequence. Phenotypic plasticity as it relates to EP has been studied extensively in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), a globally introduced songbird. It is …

Habitat Loss And Its Behavioral Effects On A Female Gray Hawk In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas, Usa, Michael T. Stewart, Ashley M. Tanner, Brian A. Millsap, William S. Clark

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Habitat loss is a major threat to wildlife worldwide. While habitat loss is commonly associated with the fragmentation, degradation, or destruction of large tracts of suitable space, habitat loss in urban environments can be much more incremental and nuanced. We tracked an adult female gray hawk (Buteo plagiatus) in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, USA, before and after 70% of the trees (7.6 ha) were cleared from the core of the nesting territory. While the hawk’s overall activity budget between within-patch and exploratory movements was unchanged, the hawk undertook substantially longer exploratory movements after the trees …

Investigating Relatedness Within Breeding Units Of The Highly Social Bushtit (Psaltriparus Minimus), Fiona Skye Connelly

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Cooperative breeding systems represent an array of varied reproductive strategies and remain a topic of interest in behavioral ecology (i.e., Riehl 2013, Cornwallis et al. 2017). Different manifestations of cooperative breeding, such as cooperative polyandry, no doubt have unique evolutionary pressures tied to local ecologies which have led to their proliferation. Of particular interest are species that show flexibility in their use of reproductive strategies, wherein individuals may choose one strategy over another given a specific circumstance. Here, I used double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (i.e., ddRAD-seq) to investigate bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) reproductive strategies and the relatedness between …

Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Autonomous camera-trap arrays coupled with artificial-intelligence (AI) vision can lift bird monitoring beyond the spatial, temporal, and labor limits of traditional field surveys. We present Binoculars to Bytes (B2B), an open-source pipeline that turns 180–360° time-lapse imagery into analysis-ready avian data. At Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (Montana, USA) the system ran four-hour morning deployments during spring and fall migrations (2023–2024). A YOLO-NAS detector, incrementally refined with a “Specialized Localized Iterative Model” workflow, quadrupled local accuracy and, after confidence-based species-binning, cut false-positive rates in half. Daily AI species lists were benchmarked against contemporaneous eBird citizen-science checklists and recovered ≥ …

Food Finding Ability Does Not Predict Annual Survival In Winter Resident Birds, Aidan Hand

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Small non-migratory birds in temperate locations face many challenges to survive the winter. They must be able to find enough food, which is in decreased supply, to fuel the energetic demands of staying warm. Prior work has demonstrated that birds show individual variation in their foraging behaviors that could contribute to the discovery of new foraging patches, such as novel environment exploration. A better ability to discover new food sources could increase a bird’s chance of surviving the winter by increasing its access to new food patches. To test this hypothesis, we used radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled bird feeders to …

Severe Aggression Among Zoo-Housed Coconut (Trichoglossus Haematodus) And Rainbow (Trichoglossus Moluccanus) Lorikeets: Wellbeing Considerations For Free-Flight Aviaries, Emily Simkins

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As conservation and education institutions, modern zoos balance the needs of animals with the interests of visitors through several strategies which can increase animal wellbeing and improve visitor experience. Environmental enrichment is frequently employed to increase the suitability of anthropogenic environments for zoo-housed animals, such as through walkthrough habitats and free-flight aviaries. While habitats such as these are important for visitor experience and can be enriching to animals, there are also wellbeing considerations for these spaces. Walkthrough habitats can be a potential source of fear and stress for animals, as shown by increased frequencies of vigilance, undesirable behavior, and aggression. …

First Breeding Confirmation For Red-Breasted Nuthatch (Sitta Canadensis) Along The Big Bend Reach Of The Platte River, Jacob C. Cooper, Cody Mcgregor, Letitia M. Reichart, Janet Steele

Nebraska Bird Review

The Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is a highly nomadic species of North American nuthatch prone to large movements across the entire continent (Ghalambor and Martin 2020). This behavior has resulted in both a lack of geographic variation across the continent and propensity to colonize isolated patches of suitable habitat (Ghalambor and Martin 2020). In the Bessey District of the Nebraska National Forest (NNF), Red-breasted Nuthatches were one of the first coniferous-forest bird species to colonize and begin breeding in the isolated planted stands of pine (Zimmer 1913, Bray 1994). Despite the increasing number of records for the species …

Index To Volume 92

Nebraska Bird Review

Able, K. A. 131
Adams, H. 88
Alexander, Jan 33
Allard, Savannah 33
Allen: C.R. 167; Edward 58
Allison, Betty 34
Altman, Dakota 33
Ames, Cheryl 68
Amy, Peter 68
Anderson: Ann 157; Brett 32, 34; Logan 61; Rachel 33; Will 125
Andersson, Justin 34
Ani, Groove-billed 134
Archer, Kellen 33
Arends, Jim 34
Audubon, John J. 18, 19, 20
Austgen, Jane 34
Avocet, American 58, 92, 111, 148, 169

. . .

Zach, Joel 34
Zicafoose, Kirby 32
Zimmer, J.T. 167
Zimmerman, Kelsey 63
Zoller, Lawrence 61
Zonotrichia leucophrys: leucophrys 16, 72; oriantha 16, 72

Mccook Fall Field Days, Sept. 20–22, 2024, Gary Roberts

Nebraska Bird Review

The 2024 NOU Fall Field Days were held in McCook on September 20–22, with approximately fifty-one people in attendance. The programs were held at McCook Community College Student Union. A special thanks to Boni Edwards and Jan Johnson for planning the meeting.

Field trips were led by Bill Flack—Medicine Creek Reservoir and Cambridge Park, Robin Harding—Red Willow Reservoir and Culbertson Trail, Joel Jorgenson—Swanson Reservoir and Hitchcock County, and T.J. Walker—Rock Creek Recreation Area and Dundy County. Counties included were Chase, Dundy, Frontier, Furnas, Hayes, Hitchcock, Lincoln, Perkins, and Red Willow.

A total of 139 species were observed with notable sightings …

Fall Field Report, August–November 2024, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

First off, I should reiterate that records are only mentioned in this Introduction and in the text when they add to or fine-tune data included in BONO (Birds of Nebraska – Online (outdoornebraska.gov). It was my expectation that as the number of birders and in particular those reporting to eBird continue to increase, gaps in the database will be filled and my job will become simpler. However, this expectation is yet to be realized, likely due to increasing movements and activity among birds that appears to be due to increasing severity of weather events, such as heat, cold, and drought, …

The Nebraska Bird Review (December 2024) 92(4), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Fall Field Report, August–November 2024, by W. Ross Silcock

First Breeding Confirmation for Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) along the Big Bend Reach of the Platte River, by Jacob C. Cooper, Cody McGregor, Letitia M. Reichart, and Janet Steele

McCook Fall Field Days, Sept. 20–22, 2024, by Gary Roberts

Index to Volume 92

Subscription and Organization Information

Biosense: An Automated Sensing Node For Organismal And Environmental Biology, Andrea Contina, Eric Abelson, Brendan Allison, Brian Stokes, Kenedy F. Sanchez, Henry M. Hernandez, Anna M. Kepple, Quynhmai Tran, Isabella Kazen

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Automated remote sensing has revolutionized the fields of wildlife ecology and environmental science. Yet, a cost-effective and flexible approach for large scale monitoring has not been fully developed, resulting in a limited collection of high-resolution data. Here, we describe BioSense, a low-cost and fully programmable automated sensing platform for applications in bioacoustics and environmental studies. Our design offers customization and flexibility to address a broad array of research goals and field conditions. Each BioSense is programmed through an integrated Raspberry Pi computer board and designed to collect and analyze avian vocalizations while simultaneously collecting temperature, humidity, and soil moisture data. …

Changes In Morphology, Phenology, Demography Of Several Avian Species Over 18 Years At A Restored Grassland, Ashley Mcmahon, Katie Stumpf, Charlie Muise

Biology Theses

In response to a changing climate and habitat loss, avian species are displaying changes in body size, migration phenology, and demography. Species have often adhered to Allen’s and Bergmann’s rules, displaying increased wing length and decreased body mass, respectively, over time in response to higher temperatures. Additionally, climate change has resulted in earlier spring migration and depending on species, either earlier or later fall migration. Finally, species affected by habitat loss often display male-skewed sex ratios and juvenile skewed age ratios. Our goal was to determine how 1) body size, 2) migration phenology, and 3) demography have changed for grassland …

Temperature Affects Nest Box Selection, Nest Success, And Nestling Size In A Southeastern Population Of Eastern Bluebirds, Katie Stumpf

Georgia Journal of Science

Given the critical role of temperature in avian reproduction, rising global temperatures will likely impact reproductive success of many bird populations. We examined the effect of nest box temperature, nest box color, entrance orientation, distance to forest cover, and distance to water on net box selection, nest success, and nestling size in eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in central Georgia. White painted nest boxes had significantly cooler temperatures than control nest boxes (P < 0.05). However, model selection revealed that eastern bluebird females selected control boxes, despite their overall warmer temperatures. Nest success was associated with year, likely because of high nest predation during the warmer 2022 breeding season (P < 0.05). Nest success was also associated with cooler nest boxes, possibly because incubating females spend more time incubating which can reduce predation risks. Larger nestlings fledged from painted nest boxes, nest boxes with cooler temperatures, and nests from 2021, which we attribute to decreased thermoregulatory demands enabling faster nestling growth in cooler boxes and years. These seemingly opposing results suggest there may be an optimal temperature range where nest box temperature maximizes reproductive fitness while minimizing energetic demands on incubating adults. Determining this temperature range can help target management efforts to ensure specific goals are met.

Blackbird, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

The introduced common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a pest in eastern Australia. It damages commercial fruit crops and may compete with native birds. The species is prohibited in Western Australia and individuals found here are destroyed.

The Western Australian Organism List (WAOL) contains information on the area(s) in which this pest is declared and the control and keeping categories to which it has been assigned in Western Australia (WA). For more information, see our website at dpird.wa.gov.au.

Correcting The Record: Subspecific Identification Of Nebraska’S Lone Common Eider (Somateria Mollissima), Sam Manning, Joel G. Jorgensen, Stephen J. Brenner, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

In late November or early December 1967, Roger Guenther harvested a Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) on Maloney Canal between Maloney and Sutherland in Lincoln County, Nebraska. The head and a single foot from the carcass were deposited at the University of Nebraska State Museum via the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the Nebraska Fish and Game Department (now the Game and Parks Commission). Dr. Jean Tate prepared the parts, which were inventoried as specimen #ZM-12341 in the UNSM. Dr. Paul Johnsgard purportedly took this specimen to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for identification purposes, and concluded …

2023 (35th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The functions and methods of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (NOURC) are described in its bylaws (NOURC 2010). The committee’s purpose is to provide a procedure for documenting unusual bird sightings and to establish a list of all documented birds for Nebraska. Species for which the NOURC seeks documentation (NOURC Review List) can be found at the NOU website https://noubirds.org/Birds/ReviewList.aspx. Starting in 2020, the NOURC decided to deal mainly with those species deemed as Accidental on the “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska”. Casual species and out-of- range species are now summarized in the “Seasonal Reports” of the …

The Nebraska Bird Review (September 2024) 92(3), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Summer Field Report, June–July 2024, by W. Ross Silcock

Correcting the Record: Subspecific Identification of Nebraska’s Lone Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), by Sam Manning, Joel G. Jorgensen, Stephen J. Brenner, and W. Ross Silcock

2023 (35th) Report of the NOU Records Committee, by Mark A. Brogie

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Summer Field Report, June–July 2024, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This was an intriguing summer in several ways. I am far from being a knowledgeable ecologist, but, like most of us, as a layman I wonder whether and how weather affects birds, and if and how local weather is reflecting the conventional wisdom of climate change. Climate change seems increasingly to be expressed as various extreme or rapidly changing weather events that have differing effects on vegetation and consequently insect and larger prey populations. Every species responds differently it seems, depending on its biological needs, but food supply is the most important issue for birds. It is tempting to assign …