Klamath Bird Observatory’s collaborative conservation planning approach is fueled with results from partner-driven science programs. These science programs use birds as indicators of the healthy and resilient ecosystems on which we all depend. The science involves three coordinated aspects:

1. Long-term monitoring that provides information about broad-scaled changes in the condition of our world;
2. More in-depth theoretical research about how natural and human influences affect our land, air, and water; and
3. Applied ecology projects that directly address priority natural resource management challenges.

We bring results from our integrated science program to bear through an education and science delivery approach involving partner-driven engagement in conservation planning. With science, we are informing critical decisions being made today that will have lasting influences into the future.

Klamath Bird Observatory Science-based Conservation: Local, Regional, and International

Klamath Bird Observatory’s award-winning conservation model is applied at local, regional, and international scales.

1. We developed our model locally in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of northern California and southern Oregon where we maintain intensive science and conservation planning efforts.
2. We now provide scientific resources and decision support across the Pacific Northwest region through the Avian Knowledge Northwest node of the Avian Knowledge Network.
3. Our intensive professional education and international capacity building programs expand our influence into Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean where we actively support partners who are applying our model through a network of locally driven programs aimed at protecting birds throughout their breeding, migration, and wintering ranges.

Klamath Bird Observatory Conservation Model Applied: Restoration for Oak Woodland Birds and Their Habitats

Our work to advance oak woodland conservation provides a classic example of this model in action. Our science provides:

1. A clear sign that oak woodland bird populations are in decline;
2. Information about their habitat needs and the possible influence of climate change on their health and distribution; and
3. Results that tell us what kind of management actions benefit these species.

Armed with this information we identify conservation priorities and projects to benefit oak related species in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. We offer specific guidance for broad-scaled restoration of oak habitats in the Pacific Northwest. In northern California and southern Oregon we are partnering to design, fund, and evaluate specific restoration projects on public and private lands, ensuring on-the-ground benefits to birds. Our leadership in the Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) cultivates partnerships that have resulted in over $6 million for on-the-ground restoration that is driven by our conservation planning approach. KSON oak conservation programs have been highlighted in the last two national State of the Birds reports and received the U.S. Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award.

The Klamath Bird Observatory Advancing bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships

The Hermit Thrush is very well named. One might not know of its presence but for a soft quoit call or a brownish blur rushing into the base of a bush. They are a quiet, skulking, and reclusive species. This is a good reason for trying to catch them in nets to quickly place a band on their leg, figure out their age and sex, assess their physical condition, and release them on their way. Researchers attempting to learn more about Hermit Thrushes usually capture many more of them than are heard or seen. And with a brief examination in the hand we learn so much more than could be learned from a passing encounter using non-capture monitoring methods.

KBO has banded a great many Hermit Thrushes over decades of monitoring at several study sites in our monitoring network. They are consistently in the top ten most numerously captured species each year. This species is present throughout the year in our Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion. And so it was mid-September a couple years ago at a study site along the western shore of Upper Klamath Lake …

The Odessa Creek Campground, within Fremont-Winema National Forest and about 22 miles west of Klamath Falls, Oregon, is the location of a KBO long-term monitoring station operated each year since the fall of 1996. The campground is well-known as a hot birding spot and as a “vagrant trap” – that is, as a place where bird species show up far away from their usual range of distribution. This has made the station an exciting one to operate over the years with several species captured that might be considered out-of-place like American Redstart, Black-and-White Warbler, Gray Catbird, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ovenbird, and others. But the real value of the study site is its usual richness of birdlife during the nesting season and fall migration. The habitat is mixed with a fairly mature conifer forest adjacent to an expansive riparian forest and the great wetlands of Upper Klamath Lake. The mixed and rich nature of habitat equates to a mixed and rich bird community. There are many breeding species as well as large migration waves using the area.

On September 18, 2012 KBO biologists experienced a fairly big and busy day capturing 65 birds of 15 species, including flycatchers, jays, wrens, chickadees, thrushes, warblers, sparrows, and finches. One of these was a Hermit Thrush given the band number 2551-10469, a healthy youngster just hatched earlier that year. The following week, another busy day was had at Odessa Creek Campground with 76 captures, several of these already-banded, including our quiet and skulking acquaintance number 2551-10469. After that day, we had no further contact with Hermit Thrush number 2551-10469. That is, until earlier this year with the arrival of a report from the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory that 2551-10469 had been captured and released by a banding operation at Cabrillo National Monument near San Diego, California on April 4, 2014!

But this hermit’s story doesn’t end there. Many chapters are yet to be uncovered — where was this bird hatched? What route has it used in its migrations?  Where has it ultimately gone in its northern nesting and southern wintering destinations? The hermit’s tale has an exciting beginning with nine days in September at Odessa Creek Campground and a flashy appearance (with a shiny band) at Cabrillo National Monument a year and a half later, after three migrations of over 800 miles during each journey. What ribald and dashing adventures to be had, what dangers to be narrowly escaped, what sun and song filled summer mornings to come? We anxiously await the next installment … or as we say in biology, more study needed.

In 2000, Klamath Bird Observatory incorporated, emerging from nearly 10 years of coordinated inventory and monitoring efforts in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California.  In that same year President Clinton issued a proclamation that established the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, protecting 52,000 acres referred to as “an ecological wonder” and “a biological crossroads—the interface of the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ecoregions, in an area of unique geology, biology, climate, and topography.”  These lands are representative of the biodiversity for which the larger area we had been studying is widely recognized.  The proclamation called for management in the Monument that ensures continued ecological integrity for the area.  It was this ecological integrity that our research, using birds as indicators, was designed to measure.  In fact, we had collected a lot of data in the area of the Monument documenting the biodiversity of birds, a group of animals identified in the proclamation as one of the many “objects of biological interest” to be protected in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

In 2000, Klamath Bird Observatory’s non-advocacy, science-based model was new to the region and we were well-positioned to facilitate what was escalating into a controversial issue.  The Presidential Proclamation called for a livestock grazing impacts study, stating that, “should grazing be found incompatible with protecting the objects of biological interest, the Secretary [of Interior] shall retire the grazing allotments [within the Monument].”  This resulted in a tense atmosphere among stakeholders including the ranchers who had grazed livestock in the area for decades, an environmental community focused on reducing the negative impacts of grazing, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a government agency typically charged with multiple-use natural resource management but now tasked with coordinating a complicated scientific study and protecting an area for conservation purposes.

Soon after the proclamation was issued, Klamath Bird Observatory began working with all the stakeholders to design and implement a grazing effects study in the Monument.  We were faced with both social and scientific challenges that put our new non-advocacy, science-based model to the test.  At first, the environmental community voiced concerns about KBO working with the BLM on the study, showing their distrust of the agency.  Expressing similar skepticism, many of the ranchers were concerned that we were working with the non-government environmental community on aspects of the study.  All parties were concerned that individual partners or funding sources would introduce bias into our results.  In addition to these social issues, designing a grazing impacts study in the Monument represented a significant scientific challenge because the majority of the area had been grazed for many decades, leaving us with no ungrazed habitats to use as “controls” against which grazing effects could be compared.

We quickly realized that our non-advocacy, science-based model could be used to turn these challenges into opportunities for success.  The study design would require cooperation from all stakeholders; we would need to conduct extensive vegetation surveys to document a subtle gradient representing less grazed to more heavily grazed sites.  We took on a leading role in this aspect of the study, viewing its design and implementation as essential to effectively measuring the effects of grazing on the Monument’s objects of biological interest.  We also viewed collaboration on the study design as a way to unify both the agency and NGO partners involved in the broader grazing effects study.

Within this context we helped to facilitate a process whereby a team of agency, academic, and NGO scientists collaborated on a transparent set of study designs that were presented for scientific review as well as review by a Resource Advisory Committee representing the diverse stakeholder interests.  At a Resource Advisory Committee meeting it was agreed that this peer-reviewed and transparent study, and the peer-reviewed results, would produce an agreed upon body of science that would support the upcoming decisions on grazing that had been called for in the Presidential Proclamation.  This elevated the science above the social controversy and distrust, in recognition of the integrity of the scientific process.  The stage was set for a management decision to be informed by one of the most comprehensive grazing effects studies ever conducted in the western United States.

Many of the study results did indicate that maintaining the current grazing rate and conserving the ecological integrity required by the Monument’s objects of biological interest would prove to be a challenge for the Bureau of Land Management.  For example, our data suggested that reduced grazing would benefit long-distance migrant, foliage gleaning, and shrub-nesting birds in the Monument’s oak woodland habitats, meeting established bird conservation objectives.

During the time that the Monument was being created, and the study was being designed and implemented, a separate negotiation involving the government and the environmental and grazing communities was underway.  These groups were seeking legislation to facilitate third-party compensation for ranchers who would donate their grazing leases in the Monument, allowing their allotments to be permanently eliminated.  This financial compensation offered an alternative to the Presidential Proclamation that stated, “should grazing be found incompatible with protecting the objects of biological interest, the Secretary shall retire the grazing allotments.”  However, it was not until the study results were published that a compensation price point could be agreed upon.  The results made the retiring of the allotments more likely, given the Secretary’s obligation to meet the directives of the proclamation.

Our early involvement with the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument grazing study served as an excellent test of our non-advocacy, science-based model, and proved to be a true success story for Klamath Bird Observatory, for science, and for science-based bird conservation.  Our non-advocacy, science-based model served as a means for building bridges among adversaries, who were eventually able to collaborate as part of a transparent and effective scientific process.  Through our involvement we solidified many long-lasting partnerships with diverse collaborators including the Bureau of Land Management, Geos Institute (formally a local office of the World Wildlife Fund), Oregon State University, the US Geological Services Co-op Unit, and local landowners and ranchers.  Additionally, many acres of habitat in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument are no longer grazed by livestock, a change in management that is benefitting the ecological integrity of the Monument and many of the resident and migratory birds that depend on its oak woodland habitats.

On a cool, clear summer morning a few weeks ago in northern California, several members of the KBO team and I crouched behind a screen of willows next to our mist-net, swatting at the abundant mosquitoes and listening to the birds singing all around us. We were a bit nervous, as our research quarry was a Yellow-breasted Chat, a strikingly beautiful bird known for its garrulous song, but also a bird that can be furtive and shy, preferring to keep to the densest thickets of blackberry. Our goal was to capture, tag, and release 22 male chats… and we only had four days to do it!

We would attach a lightweight scientific device called a geolocator to the Yellow-breasted Chats we captured in order to track the birds throughout the year. We wished to learn their migratory routes and the location of their wintering grounds. Understanding migratory connectivity – the way a single bird population links geographic areas through its breeding, migratory, and wintering behaviors – has long been a significant scientific challenge. Many songbirds travel incredible distances over the course of a year, and in most cases they are too small to carry GPS satellite transmitters that would allow biologists to study them year-round. The resulting gap in our knowledge is a barrier to successful full life cycle conservation. Scientists and land managers need to know where birds are throughout the year in order to better understand habitat needs and identify threats.

Fortunately, advances in technology are helping us overcome the logistical challenges of monitoring small songbirds, and we’ve learned a tremendous amount about the movements of North American breeding birds during the past decade. Small light-level geolocators for tracking birds now weigh less than half a gram. A geolocator is attached to a bird via a tiny backpack with two leg loops, and it records ambient light levels throughout the day. The data it collects can later be used to estimate the bird’s prior locations within a few hundred kilometers. Day length gives an estimate of latitude, as days are longer in the north in summer, and longitude can be calculated from the timing of sunrise, as the sun rises earlier as you travel east across the globe. One limitation of geolocators is they are so small they cannot transmit information; therefore, these units must be retrieved—typically following a roundtrip migratory journey—in order to extract the data.

On this cool June morning, Klamath Bird Observatory was attempting to employ the new geolocator technology on Yellow-breasted Chats at our Trinity River field site in northern California. We were trying to lure the male Yellow-breasted Chats into our mist-nets by playing audio recordings of other males singing territorial songs. The hope was that male chats in our area would rush in to investigate the new “rival” and inadvertently fly into one of our soft mist-nets. We also had a painted wooden chat decoy to use as additional bait. We weren’t sure how strongly the males would respond to audio playback or the decoy, and thus we waited anxiously; the success of our mission hinged upon their behavioral response.

After some time passed and we hadn’t heard our target male singing, two of us broke off to set up a new net in a (hopefully) better location. Before long, we heard KBO Executive Director John Alexander’s voice over the walkie-talkie: “He’s in the net!” With excitement, we raced back to the banding station to attach our first geolocator in what would become a very busy and thrilling week.

Assisting in this endeavor were KBO’s Trinity River field interns, who had been mapping the territories of Yellow-breasted Chat pairs, and several other bird species, for the past six weeks. They guided us to each known chat territory, allowing us to quickly locate and capture the resident males. We also had experienced bird banders from the US Forest Service’s Redwood Sciences Lab, including CJ Ralph and Andrew Wiegardt, and volunteer David Price, as well as experienced KBO staff, such as John Alexander and myself, to do the job.

We captured four males on the first day alone. Having the male chat in hand, however, was only the first step of the process! Placing a small geolocator on a small bird whose dense feathers obscure your ability to see what you’re doing requires significant manual dexterity. Each geolocator has a harness threaded through it, consisting of two leg loops made of Stretch Magic, a common craft supply item. The night before, we measured out the moderately stretchy rubber threads and fused them into closed loops in the field house. We used a formula to calculate what size of bird would match up with each harness we created. The chats in northern California ranged from about 22-29 grams in mass, requiring harnesses with spans of 45-51 mm. The difference of a few millimeters may seem negligible, but a harness that fits correctly is vital for bird safety. A harness that is too big or too small could hinder the birds’ wings or legs, and it could fall off or create other problems during the long migratory journey. While our method required some preparatory work, it allowed us to quickly attach harnesses in the field, thereby saving valuable field time and reducing stress on chats during the handling period.

We continued to move through our study plots, setting up nets in the dense streamside vegetation and eagerly watching the male chats respond to our audio “intruders” and fly into our nets. We eventually captured 22 males, which allowed us to deploy all of our geolocators! Now, we must hope that a substantial number of our tagged males survive the roundtrip migratory journey and the long winter to return again next spring so we have a chance of recapturing them and retrieving their data. Due to this challenge, most geolocator studies have relatively small sample sizes; nevertheless, these studies have revolutionized our understanding of migratory connectivity.

We are partnering with Christine Bishop and her research team from Environment Canada and Simon Fraser University. Together, we will examine our data and compare the migratory routes and wintering grounds of our northern California population of Yellow-breasted Chats with those of an endangered population of chats that breed in British Columbia. This project will eventually form a tri-national partnership, including our San Pancho Bird Observatory partners working in overwintering areas in Mexico. We are excited to see the results, but for now we must wait. The Yellow-breasted Chats in northern California are finishing nesting for the season and will soon wing their way back to their southern homes. They will remain there for several months, until the lengthening days of spring urge them to return to us once more.

Klamath Bird Observatory hosted an outreach event for professional partners on June 9th at our Upper Klamath Field Station’s Sevenmile Long-term Bird Monitoring and Banding Station in the Fremont-Winema National Forest. This picturesque research facility, a historic Forest Service Guard Station, is located on the northern outskirts of the Klamath Basin, nestled in a small clearing surrounded by shrubs, forest, and streamside habitats.

Such habitat diversity translates into avian diversity, and as our partners enjoyed pastries, spooned parfait, and sipped coffee at the start of the event, a variety of birds called from the surrounding vegetation, including Northern Flickers, Yellow Warblers, Western Tanagers, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Song Sparrows, and an occasional chatty Belted Kingfisher.

Klamath Bird Observatory initiated this first annual Bird Banding Outreach Day to demonstrate the value of our long-term monitoring program to our professional partners who support the KBO programs that inform their natural resource management work on public lands.  KBO Executive Director John Alexander opened the event with an overview of the history of the Klamath Bird Observatory, focusing on our work in the Klamath Basin and our nearly 20 years of collaboration with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.  Then, Science Director Jaime Stephens provided a summary of our scientific programs, including a new study on the habitat preferences of Black-backed Woodpeckers in green, unburned forests.

The group, including US Forest Service professionals from the Fremont-Winema National Forest, then moved to a shaded picnic table near a copse of young aspen where biologists are set up to measure, band, and release songbirds that are being tracked as part of KBO’s long-term monitoring program. When we arrived, KBO intern Kaitlin Clark from Michigan was gently blowing on the head feathers of a Yellow Warbler to glean information about skull development that can help determine the bird’s age.

KBO Biologist and Banding Project Leader Robert Frey described the purpose and procedure of the banding program to our guests. In brief, bird banding is a method of bird monitoring that can be used to track the size and characteristics of a population over time. First, a bird is gently caught in a soft, fine net called a mist net. After being carefully removed by a biologist, a small aluminum band is placed around the bird’s leg like a bracelet. Engraved in the band is a unique number which will allow biologists to track the bird if it is recaptured. Additional data are collected (e.g., age, sex, weight, breeding condition) and then the bird is released to continue its daily activities.

The Klamath Bird Observatory banding program has numerous conservation applications. We learn whether birds are successfully breeding in an area—an indication of healthy habitat. We learn whether birds are surviving migration—information that can inform international conservation efforts. Re-sightings of banded birds give us specific locations related to migration routes and overwintering sites. More generally, we monitor birds because they tell us about the functioning of the environment as a whole, and this has important consequences for birds, other wildlife, and human communities.

Before concluding our morning, each of the banding interns—including Aracely Guzman from Mexico City, Alexis Diaz from Lima, Peru, and Chris Taft from Seattle, Washington—spoke about their interest in bird conservation and their professional development goals for their internship with KBO. One of the great contributions of the KBO banding program is the training of over 170 early-career conservation biologists who go on to advance conservation in the US and abroad where many of our breeding birds spend their winters.

Klamath Bird Observatory is grateful for our federal agency partners who enable and support the bird conservation work we do on public lands. Thanks to all of those who joined us for our first annual Bird Banding Outreach Day!

As part of the Obama Administration’s ambitious youth initiative to inspire millions of young adults to play, learn, serve, and work in the great outdoors and the President’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Initiative, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced $6.7 million in grants to support conservation employment and mentoring opportunities at 43 projects on public lands across the country. The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps is a national collaborative effort to put America’s youth and returning veterans to work protecting, restoring, and enhancing America’s great outdoors.

With funding from the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park service, and US Forest Service, Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) will build on a long-standing partnership with the agencies to expand its internship program and improve outreach to underserved communities, including Native American, Hispanic, and other underserved youth.  The combination of KBO’s established long-term monitoring program and an intensive training curriculum foster the integration of youth engagement and professional training.  Program expansion will create four six-month internship positions.

KBO Interns are provided with a robust opportunity to gain a realistic appreciation of what a field biologist position entails as part of their training and practical experience.  The internship program establishes a working atmosphere of respect and collaboration with intern engagement with staff and Board members, a series of day‐long extracurricular seminars, and KBO social events. Interns also learn how the data they collect are applied to address conservation priorities at regional, continental, and hemispheric scales. Klamath Bird Observatory’s project will be operated out of long-term field residences in the Upper Klamath Basin, OR, and will include activities at 10 monitoring sites in southern Oregon and northern California, and at KBO’s headquarters in Ashland, OR.

This project is being funded through the America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists, a competitive grant matching program launched in conjunction with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Through the America’s Great Outdoors program, a total of $1.9 million in federal funds is being granted to 43 projects country-wide, and is being leveraged into the $6.7 million to support youth across the country.

Klamath Bird Observatory programs and partnerships exemplify public-private partnerships and meaningful educational and employment opportunities, and focus on public lands conservation which is at the core of the America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists program.

“We have a shared responsibility to protect and promote public lands that belong to all Americans so our children and their children can enjoy them for generations to come.  The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps is built through strong public-private partnerships that not only provide employment opportunities to young adults but also provide powerful connections to nature that will last a lifetime,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

“The partnerships associated with developing the next generation of conservationists offer an opportunity to connect our young people to the great outdoors,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This program engages young people from diverse backgrounds, including underserved populations, and equips them with the knowledge and critical job skills they need to pursue careers in conservation and land management.”

“NFWF is proud to support this initiative in partnership with the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to provide hundreds of young people with the opportunity to get real world, boots in the mud experience with conservation jobs,” said Jeff Trandahl, Executive Director and CEO, NFWF. “Providing these additional resources is a huge win for youth, conservation, and the future of America’s great outdoors.”

Klamath Bird Observatory is a scientific non-profit organization that achieves bird conservation in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the migratory ranges of the birds of our region. KBO developed an award-winning conservation model in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California, and KBO now applies this model more broadly to care for our shared birds throughout their annual cycles. Emphasizing high caliber science and the role of birds as indicators of the health of the land, we specialize in cost-effective bird monitoring and research projects that improve natural resource management. Also, recognizing that conservation occurs across many fronts, we nurture a conservation ethic in our communities through our outreach and educational programs. We owe our success to committed donors, volunteers, staff, and conservation partners who demonstrate that each of us can contribute to a legacy of abundant bird populations and healthy land, air, and water.

Click here to access a PDF of this press release.

  Fine art can be a powerful force for bird conservation. This notion will come to life at the upcoming Mountain Bird Festival through a Fine Art Auction featuring the impressive talent of our region’s artists. There will be 14 art submissions for auction, and bids can be placed on Friday May 30th from 5:00 – 9:00pm and on Saturday May 31st from 5:00 – 6:45pm at the festival’s headquarters: ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum (1500 E Main St, Ashland).

Bids can be placed by individuals who are registered for the festival, or by individuals who purchase a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and a Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp ($15 each, $30 in total) at the door to gain entry to the evening festivities, including art auction, no-host bar, and Saturday keynote presentations and music. Funds generated from stamp sales will directly support bird and habitat conservation.

To the right and below, we share a sample of the fine art that will be on display at the first-ever Mountain Bird Festival. The Mountain Bird Festival is a community conservation event hosted by Klamath Bird Observatory, in partnership with the City of Ashland, Ashland Chamber of Commerce, and ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum.

   

  Klamath Bird Observatory, with funding from the City of Ashland and the Kinsman Foundation, and overwhelming support from a community of sponsors and volunteers, is gearing up to host our first Mountain Bird Festival.  Bird enthusiasts are signing up and so far the majority of registrants will be coming from outside the region to attend this unique celebration in Ashland, Oregon from May 30th to June 1st. We are hosting this festival within a  context of conservation.

Klamath Bird Observatory is currently serving on a national team of scientists and communications specialists working to produce annual State of the Birds reports. The reports link bird conservation to the fundamentals of sustainability. They recognize that bird populations, like the famous canary in the coal mine, serve as bellwethers of the health of whole ecosystems, and thus our economic and social well-being.

As the State of the Birds Team works on the upcoming report, which will provide an update on bird population trends in our country since the initial report five years ago, we reflect on the centennial commemoration of the Passenger Pigeon. Once North America’s most abundant bird, the Passenger Pigeon was driven to extinction 100 years ago. A lesson that emerges from this travesty is that we must use proactive approaches to natural resource management and excellent applied science to avoid such unnecessary losses in the future.

While the State of the Birds reports highlight many inspiring conservation success stories, such as the recovery of the Peregrine Falcon, and the effective management of migratory birds through the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, they also outline some alarming trends. For example, declines of western forest birds appear to be sharpening, a reflection of the forest management challenges facing local communities, economies, and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest.

So, by placing a birding festival within a conservation context, we are balancing troubling news about declining bird populations with the optimism that science-based conservation can work. The Mountain Bird Festival celebrates how citizens and science can reverse bird population declines through strategic habitat conservation, an engaged citizenry, and stewardship for resilient ecosystems. During the festival, field trip goers will be exploring the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion, an area renowned for its high diversity of western forest migratory birds. This is also an area where opportunities abound for improved conservation of these species.

By signing up for the Mountain Bird Festival, every registrant will be purchasing a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and thereby directly contributing to habitat protection within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Additionally with registration, every festival attendee will be purchasing a Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp, with proceeds supporting Klamath Bird Observatory’s scientific programs that are driving western forest bird conservation in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

We hope you attend our inaugural Mountain Bird Festival and help us write a new conservation success story starring citizens, science, and mountain birds.

Remarkable Recapture of a Migratory Thrush

By Brandon Breen, Klamath Bird Observatory Science Communications Breaking News! Former KBO Intern captures a remarkable bird in the highlands of western Colombia, 2,714 miles from where it was originally banded! Andrés Henao and colleagues were banding birds this week in the highlands of Colombia near the town of Las Margaritas, and on December 17th they noticed that one of the migratory birds in their mist-nets had already been banded with a small metal tag on its leg.  The band was heavily worn, suggesting this bird had a story to tell. First, the biologists identified the bird as a Swainson’s Thrush and recorded the band number —2251-27131—double-checking the number. Then they carefully and quickly collected additional data about the bird, data that help determine the bird’s condition, before releasing it back into the wild.  Afterward the biologists continued their banding operation, giving each additional bird that they captured equal attention and care. When they completed the day’s banding effort, Andrés contacted his former teacher, KBO Banding Project Lead Robert Frey, to tell him the exiting news: “We recaptured a banded migratory bird today, and based on the inscription on the band, it looks like the bird was originally banded in the United States with a tag issued by the Bird Banding Laboratory.” Together, Robert and Andrés logged onto the Banding Lab’s website to enter the recaptured band number. Immediately, the Banding Lab’s web site provided incredible information about the bird!  This individual was banded in spring of 2008, in eastern Nebraska, near the town of Unadilla. At that time the Swainson’s Thrush was determined to be an “after hatch year,” meaning it was at least 1 year old, having hatched during the spring or summer of 2007, or earlier. Five and a half years later the bird was recaptured 2,714 miles from where it was originally encountered. Foreign Recapture is the term used when a previously banded and captured and released by a different permit than originally banded it. The Banding Lab will be contacting the original bander, and we will learn even more about this individual migratory bird.  Swainson’s Thrushes breed throughout Canada and Alaska, as well as in pockets in the western United States, in the northern Great Lakes states, and in northern New England. They winter in southern Mexico, Central America, and throughout much of western South America. The Swainson’s Thrush of this story winters in Colombia and likely breeds (and was likely hatched) in central Canada. Twice each year this individual flies between the two locations, passing through Nebraska on the way. So far, this 1 ounce bird has completed at least six round-trip migrations. While this Swainson’s Thrush recovery shows us the connection between Colombia as a wintering site and Nebraska as a migratory pathway, this bird also illustrates the connections we have as conservation biologists working together to learn about and conserve migratory birds throughout their annual life cycles on a hemispheric scale.  Klamath Bird Observatory works closely with many partners, including the United States Forest Service’s International Programs, to develop international conservation capacity in Latin America. Each year we invite several international interns to participate in our intensive bird banding training program.  We then work with these partners to help them develop bird monitoring and conservation programs in their home countries.  Andrés Henao trained with Klamath Bird Observatory for two seasons as a bird banding intern. Andrés is now training colleagues in his native Colombia, and he recently participated as an instructor in an international training program in Brazil. Klamath Bird Observatory is proud to partner with these early-career conservation biologists in Latin America who are contributing information and developing capacity that ultimately will allow us all to become better stewards of our shared migratory birds. We will share additional details about this remarkable Swainson’s Thrush as we learn more. Stay tuned!