As you’ve seen in my previous posts, there are some big issues facing boreal forests and the birds that live there both as summer migrants and year-round. These issues include habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as the impacts of climate change. Some researchers have suggested that we need to protect large areas of important […]
Archive for the ‘song birds’ Tag
Keeping the boreal forest in tune
A swiftly changing forest
In my last post, I talked about the impacts of forest loss and fragmentation on boreal birds. These issues impact birds whether they are year-round residents or summer visitors, and the impacts can be pretty intense- Sauer et al. (2005) estimated that the boreal chickadee population experienced an annual decline of about 3.6% between 1966 […]
If a tree falls in the boreal forest, do the birds pay attention?
When we think of boreal forests, we may think of dense networks of coniferous trees covering the landscape, but the reality is a bit more complicated than that- in addition to deciduous trees in the understory and canopy and bodies of water of all shapes and sizes, boreal forests are mosaics with patches of different […]
What flies in a northern forest?
In July I had the opportunity to attend the North American Congress on Conservation Biology in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to having a blast in the cooler weather and meeting researchers doing amazing work, I also was reminded that the boreal forests of the world are huge- in fact, they are much, much bigger than […]
Why didn’t the beetle cross the road?
As I have mentioned before, habitat fragmentation is one of the primary issues facing species around the world today- while it is far too big a topic to tackle in its entirety during one month’s posts, I think that investigating a few of its manifestations is manageable. I also think it’s necessary, since we have […]
This one’s for the birds
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to look at the status of migratory song birds, some of which are doing quite well (Baltimore orioles, for example: stable population, large range, sports team), while others are facing very bleak conditions (for a sobering experience, check out Golden-cheeked warblers, or, if you want to […]
Three migrant birds, three migrant birds, see how they change
This week I investigated three migratory song bird species to see how things were changing on a smaller scale, and while I chose these species largely because I love their plumage (I’ll admit to being shallow here and not considering the “inner-bird”), I also selected them because they represent three different scenarios: a complicated situation, […]
Lost in Migration
I feel like I’ve spent the last week swimming in a very, very big lake of migration information. I think I may have made my goals for this month a little too broad given the sheer volume of data out there- maybe I should have concentrated on a specific area or genus of birds. Trying […]
Am I missing something?
I will be the first to admit that I am not an ornithologist. I took an ornithology class at Antioch largely because I had no real knowledge of birds at all, apart from knowing that baby songbirds are often loud and persistent, especially the mockingbirds. Since my goal is to work in environmental conservation and […]