Conservation

Each spring, KBO conducts a large-scale point count surveying effort to collect data on abundance, habitat use, and bird communities. Many species can only be surveyed during their breeding season when they establish territories and are easily detected by their unique songs. To take advantage of this, our point count surveys take place within a narrow window during the spring breeding season. With the help of a fantastic team of seasonal point count technicians, KBO completed another successful season of surveys this year.

Pacific Southwest Research Station and Klamath Bird Observatory ecologists recently published new findings about using life cycles of culturally significant birds to inform the timing of prescribed burns in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion of Northern California and southern Oregon. The research was a collaborative effort with partners from the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Technological University, and others.

We invite you to join the directors of Klamath Bird Observatory and Mantiqueira Bird Observatory for a 10-day adventure exploring the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. The trip will be held August 20-29, 2024. Klamath Bird Observatory is well known for its broad international reach, focusing on partnerships and capacity building across the ranges of our shared birds. KBO’s bird banding internship program has trained over 283 interns from more than 17 countries. OAMa is a fruit of this capacity-building program, which is now running its training program in Brazil. As part of the continued partnership between these two observatories, we are pleased to announce a new internship exchange program! After training in their home country, biologists will have the opportunity to visit and train at the other observatory. KBO will host a student from OAMa for three or six months each year, and OAMa will host a student from KBO for up to three months at their field station in Brazil, jo…

From 2020-2023, a small team of researchers from KBO, USFS, USGS, and Cape Arago Audubon Society captured adult Western Purple Martins and outfitted them with lightweight archival GPS tags that fit like a backpack with two leg loops to track their movements. Our goal is to track martins that nest in Oregon to discover their migratory pathways and winter roost locations and assess whether conservation actions are needed at these non-breeding sites. This is the first study of its kind with the western subspecies and the first to track them with GPS technology throughout the year! Check out where one female Purple Martin named Roxa journeyed.

Since 2011, KSON partners have accomplished thousands of acres of strategic ecological restoration to enhance oak habitat, build climate resilience, bolster cultural resources, and reduce wildfire risk to the ecosystem and communities. The handout A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration demonstrates the power of collaboration and a decade-plus of successful oak habitat restoration from 2011-2023 with highlights from Table Rock and Colestin Valley projects.

We are officially releasing the documentary for public viewing. Join Daniel and KBO on a journey to understand the ecology of the at-risk Oregon Vesper Sparrow and the causes of its decline. Daniel covers the life history of this handsome little brown bird and the field methods and new technology that KBO is employing to study its life cycle year-round. Through beautiful imagery and graphics, he tells the story of KBOs’ continuing research to understand the decline of the Oregon Vesper Sparrow, a subspecies of conservation concern unique to the Pacific Northwest, and look for solutions.

To align KBO’s staffing to meet this forest bird conservation need, we are developing a new conservation delivery program area to help us further focus and scale up our efforts to translate science into even more conservation action. This new program area is poised for success because Jaime Stephens, who has been a leader at KBO for over 20 years, will be taking on a new role as KBO’s first Director of Conservation. Jaime has served as KBO’s long-time Science Director for many years, leading our extensive monitoring and research efforts. As the Science Director, Jaime has worked tirelessly to develop the partnerships and deliver our science, helping to grow KBO’s direct involvement in on-the-ground conservation efforts. These efforts have reached a level that warrants the creation of this new position.

To help us tell the story about how sustained forest management investments in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion may benefit birds, we invited Executive Director Terry Fairbanks from the Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative (SOFRC) to provide a testimonial. KBO is bringing multiple voices to the table to coalesce around a forest conservation movement to ensure investment if forest restoration benefits birds and people. As we restore our forest from years of fire suppression using birds to guide conservation action and evaluate restoration success, we are telling a complete ecosystem story. KBO Executive Director John Alexander, a contributor to the Report, gave a live interview with Jefferson Exchange host Geoffrey Riley, discussing this story. Terry Fairbanks’s video interview and John’s recorded interview can both be found in this blog.

The updated Partners in Flight Conservation Strategy for Landbirds in Sagebrush-Steppe and Riparian Habitats of Eastern Oregon and Washington (Rockwell 2022) brings forward recommendations to assist the planning efforts and habitat management actions of land managers and stimulate monitoring and research to support landbird conservation. This document encompasses sagebrush-steppe, riparian, and unique habitats in several ecoregions including the Owyhee Uplands, Northern Great Basin (sometimes referred to as Basin and Range), and High Lava Plains in Oregon, the Palouse Prairie in Washington, and the Columbia Basin in Washington and Oregon but also including an extension up the Okanagan Valley to the Canadian border.

A newly released State of the Birds report for the United States reveals a tale of two trends, one hopeful, one dire. Historically we have demonstrated that investment in bird conservation can pay off – for example, we have recovered at-risk species like waterfowl and the Peregrine Falcons by focused resources and efforts. However, North American populations continue to show widespread declines. In the west, forest-dependent and wetland birds are both showing a more recent decline that is of grave concern.