Updates from Audubon Society of Rhode Island
Updates from Audubon Society of Rhode Island

December 2021

The Audubon Bird Research Email Newsletter provides you with monthly updates outlining the work we are doing as part of the scientific research initiative at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. You will also receive emails when we are in need of volunteers for projects. Suggestions and questions regarding the newsletter can be sent to Dr. Charles Clarkson, Audubon Director of Avian Research, cclarkson@asri.org.

Responsibility Birds

Modeled after work done by Audubon Vermont, a list of bird species with a significant proportion of their global breeding population in New England and/or experiencing long-term population declines will be identified for additional monitoring and management activities across Audubon Society of Rhode Island properties.
Calling all Birders…it’s winter survey time!
Not looking forward to the pending winter? Wishing you had something to keep yourself busy during the short, cold days ahead? Well, lucky for you it’s time to get into the field and collect some data! Beginning in January, surveys performed across all Audubon refuges will aid our understanding of how protected land provides essential wintering habitat for birds. Although this will be the inaugural year of survey work the ultimate goal of this research will be to establish a long-term dataset used to determine the status of bird populations and inform management decisions.

Citizen Science: The Era of Big Data

An expanding range of Allen's Hummingbirds (Selasphorus sasin sedentarius) in California, large-scale movements of migratory birds following a "green wave" of vegetation across the landscape in spring and Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) packing themselves into fewer sites than traditionally thought during the non-breeding season...these are just a few findings from recently published studies that have enhanced our understanding of avian communities in North America. As you may have guessed, these studies involved a tremendous amount of data, all of which were gathered by birders and submitted through the portal eBird, an avian reporting network hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Without this massive data set representing information collected over broad geographic regions by thousands of dedicated individuals, the pace of our discovery would slow to a trickle.
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