Images

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks and egg in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Four Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Four Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

An Agassiz's desert tortoise in a wind energy facility near Palm Springs, California. USGS scientists have been studying the ecology of tortoises at this industrial site since the mid-1990s to learn more about the effects of utility-scale renewable energy development and operation on these threatened tortoises.

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chicks in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Depredated Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chick and nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Depredated Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chick and nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Depredated Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) chick and nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Stripped bark from a dead pine tree reveals the tell-tale blue streaks of a mountain pine beetle attack.

This dead pine has been marked by USGS scientists studying the effects of mountain pine beetles on forest ecology.

Four blue Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri) eggs in nest, Steens Mountain, SE Oregon.

Mountain pine beetle-infested trees turn a striking red color throughout their crown as they're dying.

Here, scientists point to a mountain pine beetle (top) and a pine beetle larva (bottom) that have been tunneling in the bark of a killed pine tree. The bluish streaks in the bark are from bluestain fungus.

USGS scientist Jenny Briggs (foreground) researches beetle-killed pines at a USGS study site near Maxwell Ranch, Colorado, while Colorado State University entomologist Dan West examines the bark of a dead tree.

USGS scientist Jenny Briggs walks through a study site near Blue Feather Lakes in Colorado. The reddish-brown trees dotting the landscape have been killed by mountain pine beetles.

USGS scientist Jenny Briggs measures the trunk of a pine tree that has been killed by mountain pine beetles.

Globs of resin on the outside bark of a pine tree indicate that it has been attacked by mountain pine beetles. The trees ooze this resin as a defense mechanism against the beetles. This pine tree has also been burned, probably in a forest fire.