Bird and Terrestrial Species Conservation

The Challenge: Accurate comprehensive information on current names of species and subspecies, their distributions, and means for their identification are required for effective conservation, management, scientific study, and enforcement of laws governing take, protection, and commerce. For the South American continent, up-to-date references containing this information have not been available until...

The Challenge: Although wildlife strikes have been investigated for decades, awareness of the dangers involved with aircraft/wildlife collisions was brought to the attention of the public when US Airways Flight 1549 struck what turned out to be a flock of Canada geese in 2009. Wildlife/aircraft collisions can be hazardous not only to the animal(s) involved, but also to people and costly equipment...

The Challenge: How can we preserve and maintain evidence from our scientific past and continue to smartly expand that resource to help scientists find the answers to the questions and challenges they will face in the future?

The Challenge: The Federal Aviation Administration has long relied on the expertise provided by the Smithsonian Feather Identification Lab for identification of bird remains recovered from bird-aircraft (birdstrike) collisions. Recently, these identifications are increasingly reliant on data from mitochondrial DNA. While generally successful in delimiting species, mitochondrial DNA is not...

The Challenge: Accurate taxonomic delineation of species and subspecies provides the biological and legal foundation for effective conservation action, whether by domestic resource management agencies or by other countries throughout the hemisphere that may be involved through international treaties or common conservation threats. Although birds are among the most well-known groups of organisms...

The Challenge: The Channel Islands, sometimes called “The Galapagos of North America,” consist of 8 islands off the coast of southern California. The islands are managed by a variety of agencies, including the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy, and the US Navy, as well as private owners, and they have had a wide variety of uses through time, from occupancy by Native American hunter...

The Challenge: Federal and state government agencies, NGOs, scientists, and authors of field guides and other literature need a standardized classification of birds to provide the taxonomic and nomenclatural foundation for bird research, conservation, and education in North America. These public agencies, private individuals, and organizations rely on the latest developments in systematics...