Migratory Birds

Many of Hawai‘i’s forest birds have shown significant declines in the past 200 years, with many currently listed as endangered species. Multiple threats have been identified as contributing to declines, including disease, invasive species, habitat loss, and decreased survivorship and productivity caused by introduced predators. Through a combination of demographic information, population modeling...

Migratory birds, and particularly those using habitats close to human settlements, may be infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria. The USGS is working with public health professionals to understand the role of birds in the maintenance and dispersal of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Additionally, the USGS is investigating how antibiotic resistant bacteria in birds may relate to public and...

We are building a 21st century wildlife monitoring system to inform resource management of the impacts of drought, wildfire, land use, climate change, and other landscape level stressors. The Automated Interactive Monitoring System (AIMS) for Wildlife will provide an actionable data stream by combining enormous quantities of wildlife movement data with environmental data and delivering it to...

Renewable energy development, such as solar and wind energy, is growing in the United States and is expected to continue expanding for the foreseeable future. However, renewable energy infrastructure can be a risk to some wildlife including threatened and endangered species. Wildlife managers and energy developers need wildlife risks to be assessed and effective strategies to mitigate those risks...

To document movement patterns and habitat use of Hawiian Hawks, GPS tags were attached to 17 individuals to track their movement across continuous, fragmented, and urban landscapes. We are now gathering multi-year tracking data to assess key aspects of habitat needs, and how these birds navigate through different ecosystems.

Data on the distribution and abundance of seabirds at sea have been used for many decades to assist in understanding the marine ecology of seabirds away from their breeding colonies, measure population status and trends, assess the impact of human activities on ocean habitats and fish stocks, and to identify critical marine habitats for seabirds.

Birds are excellent indicators of ecosystem condition because they are responsive to environmental change, have important ecological functions – such as seed dispersal and insect consumption, and are easy to observe.

WARC researchers partnered with managers and species experts to develop a Bayesian network model and a geospatial habitat characteristics dataset to predict the number of Brown Pelican breeding pairs on islands in the northern Gulf.

WARC researchers partnered with managers and species experts to develop a Bayesian network model and a geospatial habitat characteristics dataset to predict the number of breeding pairs of Black Skimmer and Gull-billed Tern along the Northern Gulf Coast.

Along the Santa Clara River in California, populations of the federally and state-listed Least Bell's Vireo ( Vireo bellii pusillus) are recovering from near extirpation. Habitat protection and restoration, as well as reducing brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds ( Molothrus ater), are thought to be the primary drivers of this recovery. The challenge going forward is to find the right balance...

The U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center is developing deep learning algorithms and tools for the automatic detection, enumeration, classification, and annotation of seabirds and other marine wildlife from digital aerial imagery — advancing cutting-edge research in collaboration with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS...

USGS researchers assessed trends in non-native mammalian predator trapping methods designed to protect endangered ʻuaʻu and nēnē at Haleakalā National Park, Hawaiʻi.