Species We Study: Birds Active
To understand information needs and respond to the many challenges in bird conservation, USGS scientists participate in Flyway committees, on Joint Venture boards and working groups, in professional organizations, and in other conservation partnerships. These activities connect USGS scientists to conservation partners with whom they work to address substantial challenges. More than one hundred USGS scientists are dedicated to the scientific study of birds.
Bird Research
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Wader Distribution & Evaluation Modeling (WADEM)
Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Migratory Birds
Species Affected by Beak Deformities
Aleutian Islands Ecosystem Recovery Studies
Science Informing the Status and Trends of Migratory Birds
Decision support for restoration and management of Service-owned native prairies: Implications for grassland bird communities
Importance of wetlands in intensively farmed landscapes to duck production
Evaluating wetland ecosystem health using real-time nutrient dynamics of ducks
Interactions of consolidation drainage and climate on water-level dynamics, wetland productivity, and waterbirds
Interaction of land use and wet/dry cycles on invertebrate populations of northern prairie wetlands: implications for waterbird habitat conservation
Inventory, mapping, estimation, and monitoring of least tern and piping plover habitats on the upper Missouri River using satellite imagery
Monitoring Bird and Rat Behavior to Improve Invasive Species Management
Recent data (2020-2022) related to USGS migratory bird research is listed below. A complete listing of USGS migratory bird data is available from the button below.
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS migratory bird research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS migratory bird publications is available from the button below.
Bridging the research-implementation gap in avian conservation with translational ecology
U.S. Geological Survey—Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center 2019–20 research activity report
Integrating tracking and resight data enables unbiased inferences about migratory connectivity and winter range survival from archival tags
Linking climate niches across seasons to assess population vulnerability in a migratory bird
Global loss of biodiversity has placed new urgency on the need to understand factors regulating species response to rapid environmental change. While specialists are often less resilient to rapid environmental change than generalists, species-level analyses may obscure the extent of specialization when locally adapted populations vary in climate tolerances. Until recently, quantification of the de
U.S. Geological Survey migratory bird science, 2020–21
Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels
Egg morphometrics and egg shape coefficients for White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)
Retreat, detour or advance? Understanding the movements of birds confronting the Gulf of Mexico
Using high resolution satellite and telemetry data to track flooded habitats, their use by waterfowl, and evaluate effects of drought on waterfowl and shorebird bioenergetics in California
A Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) captured in the web of a golden silk orb-weaver (Trichonephila clavipes)
Breeding at higher latitude is associated with higher photoperiodic threshold and delayed reproductive development in a songbird
Age‐ and sex‐related dietary specialization facilitate seasonal resource partitioning in a migratory shorebird
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- Overview
To understand information needs and respond to the many challenges in bird conservation, USGS scientists participate in Flyway committees, on Joint Venture boards and working groups, in professional organizations, and in other conservation partnerships. These activities connect USGS scientists to conservation partners with whom they work to address substantial challenges. More than one hundred USGS scientists are dedicated to the scientific study of birds.
Bird ResearchFilter Total Items: 104Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Wader Distribution & Evaluation Modeling (WADEM)
WADEM (Wader Distribution Evaluation Modeling) is a JEM model that estimates species-specific habitat suitability across the landscape for Great Egret ( Ardea alba ), White Ibis ( Eudocimus albus ), and Wood Stork ( Mycteria americana ).Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Migratory Birds
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...Species Affected by Beak Deformities
At least 30 Alaskan bird species are affected and the geographic extent of the problem appears to be growing. In addition to Alaskan observations, we have received increasing numbers of reports from other parts of North America and Europe.Aleutian Islands Ecosystem Recovery Studies
The Aleutian archipelago is a 2,000 km long chain of volcanically-derived treeless islands stretching from Unimak Island in the east to the Commander Islands in the west. These volcanic islands support a wide range of species including large numbers of seabirds and marine mammal species, some of which are threatened and endangered, leading to a high level of federal management concern.Science Informing the Status and Trends of Migratory Birds
Through the Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) Initiative, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is informing key resource management decisions by better understanding how wildlife populations of special interest to the Department of the Interior (DOI) are responding to rapid physical changes in the Arctic. Below are some examples of how CAE research is informing decision-making on the status and trends...Decision support for restoration and management of Service-owned native prairies: Implications for grassland bird communities
More than 100,000 ha of native tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the northern Great Plains. Although prairies in this region evolved with grazing, fire, and climatic variability, management of FWS grasslands often has been passive and involved extended periods of rest. In 2008, the USGS and the FWS initiated a collaborative effort, the...Importance of wetlands in intensively farmed landscapes to duck production
The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains annually hosts 50–80% of North America’s ducks during the breeding season. Accordingly, there are significant government and private funds that go to conservation for the purposes of improving duck production in the region. The Prairie Pothole Region ecosystem has a number of stressors, intensive agriculture being chief among them. The...Evaluating wetland ecosystem health using real-time nutrient dynamics of ducks
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) leads a collaborative effort, spanning several studies, with the objective of improving techniques to assess the quality of spring migration habitat for ducks. Spring is a critical time in in the life cycle of migratory ducks because during migration they experience peak energetic needs at a time when food resources are often at their scarcest...Interactions of consolidation drainage and climate on water-level dynamics, wetland productivity, and waterbirds
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) recently completed a project aimed at understanding the impacts of wetland drainage on wetlands that receive drainage water. The biological communities of prairie pothole wetlands evolved in a hydrologically dynamic system due to periodic wet and dry conditions. NPWRC research indicates that relative to wetlands in undrained landscapes, wetlands...Interaction of land use and wet/dry cycles on invertebrate populations of northern prairie wetlands: implications for waterbird habitat conservation
This effort is aimed at understanding how productivity of larger and more permanent wetlands is influenced by a combination of inter-annual hydrological dynamics and land-use impacts. Historically, aquatic-invertebrates productivity and abundance was driven by inter-annual hydrological dynamics because drying periods allow for nutrient cycling and a subsequent pulse of productivity when wet...Inventory, mapping, estimation, and monitoring of least tern and piping plover habitats on the upper Missouri River using satellite imagery
Emergent sandbar maps of the Missouri River produced by Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center continue to be used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor and manage critical breeding habitat for the endangered Interior population of least terns and the threatened Northern Great Plains population of piping plovers. These maps have been created and...Monitoring Bird and Rat Behavior to Improve Invasive Species Management
Introduced rats are notorious predators of birds and their nests worldwide, but especially on remote islands. Rats ( Rattus exulans ) first arrived in Hawai‘i with Polynesian colonists about 1,000 years ago, resulting in deleterious consequences for native birds and ecosystems. Since Western contact in 1778, two additional rat species have become established in Hawai‘i, including the highly... - Data
Recent data (2020-2022) related to USGS migratory bird research is listed below. A complete listing of USGS migratory bird data is available from the button below.
Filter Total Items: 13No Result Found - Publications
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS migratory bird research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS migratory bird publications is available from the button below.
Filter Total Items: 60Bridging the research-implementation gap in avian conservation with translational ecology
The recognized gap between research and implementation in avian conservation can be overcome with translational ecology, an intentional approach in which science producers and users from multiple disciplines work collaboratively to co-develop and deliver ecological research that addresses management and conservation issues. Avian conservation naturally lends itself to translational ecology becauseAuthorsSarah P. Saunders, Joanna X. Wu, Elizabeth A. Gow, Evan A. Adams, Brooke L. Bateman, Trina Bayard, Stephanie Beilke, Ashley A. Dayer, Auriel M.V. Fournier, Kara Fox, Christoper Hamilton, Patricia J. Heglund, Susannah B. Lerman, Nicole L. Michel, Eben H. Paxton, Çağan H. Şekercioğlu, Melanie A. Smith, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Mark S Woodrey, Charles van RiperU.S. Geological Survey—Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center 2019–20 research activity report
The mission of Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is to provide scientific information needed to conserve and manage the Nation’s natural capital for current and future generations, with an emphasis on migratory birds, Department of the Interior trust resources, and ecosystems of the Nation’s interior. This report provides an overview of the studies conducted at Northern Prairie during fiscIntegrating tracking and resight data enables unbiased inferences about migratory connectivity and winter range survival from archival tags
Archival geolocators have transformed the study of small, migratory organisms but analysis of data from these devices requires bias correction because tags are only recovered from individuals that survive and are re-captured at their tagging location. We show that integrating geolocator recovery data and mark–resight data enables unbiased estimates of both migratory connectivity between breeding aAuthorsClark S Rushing, Aimee M Van Tatenhove, Andrew Sharp, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Mary Freeman, Paul W. Jr Sykes, Aaron M. Given, T. Scott SillettLinking climate niches across seasons to assess population vulnerability in a migratory bird
Global loss of biodiversity has placed new urgency on the need to understand factors regulating species response to rapid environmental change. While specialists are often less resilient to rapid environmental change than generalists, species-level analyses may obscure the extent of specialization when locally adapted populations vary in climate tolerances. Until recently, quantification of the de
AuthorsKristen Ruegg, Eric Anderson, Marius Somveille, Rachael A. Bay, Mary J. Whitfield, Eben H. Paxton, Thomas B. SmithU.S. Geological Survey migratory bird science, 2020–21
Bird conservation as an endeavor engages a broad range of partners and a coordinated effort across State and Federal agencies, nongovernment organizations, universities and, at times, international partnerships. To understand information needs and respond to the many challenges in bird conservation, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists participate in Flyway committees, on Joint Venture boardAuthorsAaron T. Pearse, Mark H. Sherfy, Mark Wimer, Mona Khalil, Mark T. WiltermuthGlobal political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels
Migratory marine species cross political borders and enter the high seas, where the lack of an effective global management framework for biodiversity leaves them vulnerable to threats. Here, we combine 10,108 tracks from 5775 individual birds at 87 sites with data on breeding population sizes to estimate the relative year-round importance of national jurisdictions and high seas areas for 39 specieAuthorsMartin Beal, Maria P. Dias, Richard A. Phillips, Steffen Oppel, Carolina Hazin, Elizabeth J. Pearmin, Josh Adams, David J Anderson, Michelle Antolos, Javier A Arata, José Manuel Arcos, John P. Y. Arnould, Jill Awkerman, Elizabeth Bell, Mike Bell, Mark Carey, Ryan Carle, Thomas A Clay, Jaimie Cleeland, Valentina Colodro, Melinda G. Conners, Marta Cruz-Flores, Richard Cuthbert, Karine Delord, Lorna Deppe, Ben J Dilley, Herculano A. Dinis, Graeme Elliot, Fernanda de Felipe, Jonathan J. Felis, Manuela G. Forero, Amanda Freeman, Akira Fukuda, Jacob González-Solís, José Pedro Granadeiro, April Hedd, Peter Hodum, José Manuel Igual, Audrey Jaeger, Todd J Landers, Le Corre Matthieu, Azwianewi Makhado, Benjamin Metzger, Teresa Militão, William A Montevecchi, Virginia Morera-Pujol, Leia Navarro-Herrero, Deon Nel, David Nicholls, Daniel Oro, Ridha Ouni, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Flavio Quintana, Raül Ramos, Tim Reid, José Manuel Reyes-González, Christopher Robertson, Graham Robertson, Mohamed Salah Romdhane, Peter G. Ryan, Paul Sagar, Fumio Sato, Stefan Schoombie, R. Paul Scofield, Scott A. Shaffer, Nirmal Jivan Shah, Kim L Stevens, Christopher Surman, Robert M. Suryan, Akinori Takahashi, Vikash Tatayah, Graeme Taylor, David R. Thompson, Leigh Torres, Kath Walker, Ross M. Wanless, Susan M. Waugh, Henri Weimerskirch, Takashi Yamamoto, Zuzana Zajkova, Laura Zango, Paulo CatryEgg morphometrics and egg shape coefficients for White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)
Egg size is a useful metric for maternal investment, offspring quality, and contaminant studies. Yet these values and the egg shape coefficients required to estimate egg size are not available for many species, including White-faced-Ibis (Plegadis chihi). We provide egg morphometrics derived from 319 White-faced Ibis eggs sampled at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Great Salt Lake, Utah, from 201AuthorsMark P. Herzog, Josh T. Ackerman, C. Alex HartmanRetreat, detour or advance? Understanding the movements of birds confronting the Gulf of Mexico
During migration, birds must locate stopover habitats that provide sufficient resources to rest and refuel while en route to the breeding or non-breeding area. Long-distance migrants invariably encounter inhospitable geographic features, the edges of which are often characterized by habitat limited in food and safety. In response, they often depart in directions inconsistent with reaching their deAuthorsTheodore J. Zenzal, Michael P. Ward, Robert H. Diehl, Jeffrey J. Buler, Jaclyn (Contractor) Ann Smolinsky, Jill L. Deppe, Rachel T Bolus, Antonio Celis-Murillo, Frank R. MooreUsing high resolution satellite and telemetry data to track flooded habitats, their use by waterfowl, and evaluate effects of drought on waterfowl and shorebird bioenergetics in California
Wetland managers in the Central Valley of California, a dynamic hydrological landscape, require information regarding the amount and location of existing wetland habitat to make decisions on how to best use water resources to support multiple wildlife objectives, particularly during drought. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Point Blue ConservatiAuthorsElliott Matchett, Matthew Reiter, Cory T. Overton, Dennis Jongsomjit, Michael L. CasazzaA Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) captured in the web of a golden silk orb-weaver (Trichonephila clavipes)
During migration, transient birds usually find themselves stopping in unfamiliar habitats in order to rest and refuel before resuming migratory flight. Here we document the first case, to our knowledge, of a Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) entrapped in a spiderweb. The warbler's tarsus became caught in the mooring thread of a golden silk orb-weaver (Trichonephila clavipes) web and the biAuthorsTheodore J. Zenzal, Liliana Calderon, Joshua Lefever, Vincent WeberBreeding at higher latitude is associated with higher photoperiodic threshold and delayed reproductive development in a songbird
Many seasonally breeding animals exhibit a threshold day length (critical photoperiod; CPP) for gonadal growth, and populations breeding at higher latitudes typically have a higher CPP. Much less is known about latitudinal variation in CPP in migratory population that winter away from their breeding range and must time their reproduction to match favorable conditions at their destination. To addreAuthorsDevraj Singh, S. M. Reed, A. A. Kimmitt, K. A. Alford, Craig A. Stricker, P. D. Polly, Ellen D. KettersonAge‐ and sex‐related dietary specialization facilitate seasonal resource partitioning in a migratory shorebird
Dietary specialization is common in animals and has important implications for individual fitness, inter‐ and intraspecific competition, and the adaptive potential of a species. Diet composition can be influenced by age‐ and sex‐related factors including an individual's morphology, social status, and acquired skills; however, specialization may only be necessary when competition is intensified byAuthorsLaurie Anne Hall, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Isa Woo, Tomohiro Kuwae, John Y. Takekawa - News
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