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Search Results for “bird bio”

NEWS RELEASE: Rufous Hummingbird — Conserving the West’s most imperiled hummingbird

Written by John Alexander on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science, Press Room.

A new report published by the Western Hummingbird Partnership, “Rufous Hummingbird: State of the Science and Conservation,” illuminates in colorful images and graphics the biology and ecology of this tiny dynamo and highlights the many gaps in information that impede our ability to effectively protect it.

SCIENCE BRIEF: Research indicates that restoring urban riparian habitats benefits non-breeding birds

Written by Debra Agnew on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science, Press Room.

Healthy riparian habitat is vital for Neotropical migrant and resident birds. It supports high biodiversity, and it is increasingly rare across landscapes. The total area of riparian habitat in California and Oregon has declined significantly in recent years and so have its associated bird populations. Human activity and other disturbances contribute to the loss of this scarce and essential bird habitat. Scientists, conservation practitioners, and land managers are collaborating to restore key riparian areas to health, and to understand how bird responses to restoration efforts can indicate restoration success.

NEWS RELEASE: Migratory songbirds are not likely to show fidelity to molting sites

Written by KBO on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Science, Press Room.

When playing at home, sports teams usually benefit from home-field advantage. A similar advantage exists among migratory birds that return to the same nesting site year after year to find familiar surroundings, food, and neighbors. The act of returning to the same site—site fidelity—has been documented in songbirds during nesting season for decades; however, what has remained a mystery is whether or not songbirds exhibit a similar site fidelity after the breeding season, during their annual molt, or replacement of feathers.

SCIENCE BRIEF: A new modeling approach provides a birds-eye view of habitats, habitat fragmentation, and the effectiveness of conservation efforts

Written by Debra Agnew on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Science.

In a new publication selected as “editor’s choice” in the journal Landscape Ecology, researchers from Oregon State University’s Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society and Klamath Bird Observatory tested a novel species-centered technique for quantifying the influence of habitat amount and fragmentation on a community of 48 common bird species in Oregon’s Rogue Basin, including 25 oak-woodland specialists. Rather than using human-classified land-cover data, the species-centered technique uses stacked species-distribution models to quantify habitat amount and configuration. The results suggest that using this species-centered approach to define habitat for entire bird communities reveals relationships between fragmentation and bird diversity that would otherwise be obscured by the use of classified land-cover.

NEWS RELEASE: Hummingbirds and Forest Fires — It’s Complicated

Written by KBO on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science, Press Room.

From a hummingbird’s point of view, wildfire can be good or bad. With support from the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and WHP, Dr. Deborah M. Finch from the Research Station collaborated with Dr. Alexander and his research team at Klamath Bird Observatory in Oregon and with Dr. Sarahy Contreras from the University of Guadalajara – CUCSUR to complete a literature review about the effects of wildfire on hummingbird habitat, how restoration actions including prescribed fire affect those habitats, and how hummingbirds respond.