Disturbance from human activity can cause reduced productivity of coastal birds that nest on sandy beaches. A common method to protect coastal birds from human disturbance is the use of signs and fencing to close off a section of beach used for breeding. This management action requires public compliance and might require enforcement, such as in the use of volunteer stewards stationed at protected colonies

Migration is a period of high activity and exposure during which risks and energetic demand on individuals may be greater than during nonmigratory periods. Stopover locations can help mitigate these threats by providing supplemental energy en route to the animal’s end destination. Effective conservation of migratory species therefore requires an understanding of use of space that provides resources

Horned Screamers, Club-winged Manakins, and Bicolored Antbirds evoke specific memories to those who have seen these species and a great deal of wonderment to those who have not. These species, and thousands more, reside in the Neotropical realm with its deserts and rainforests, mangroves and scrublands, and steep elevational gradients, ranging from sea level to the high peaks of the Andes. The Neotropics

Horned Screamers, Club-winged Manakins, and Bicolored Antbirds evoke specific memories to those who have seen these species and a great deal of wonderment to those who have not. These species, and thousands more, reside in the Neotropical realm with its deserts and rainforests, mangroves and scrublands, and steep elevational gradients, ranging from sea level to the high peaks of the Andes. The Neotropics

Horned Screamers, Club-winged Manakins, and Bicolored Antbirds evoke specific memories to those who have seen these species and a great deal of wonderment to those who have not. These species, and thousands more, reside in the Neotropical realm with its deserts and rainforests, mangroves and scrublands, and steep elevational gradients, ranging from sea level to the high peaks of the Andes. The Neotropics

The degree to which individuals migrate among particular breeding, migration, and wintering sites can have important implications for prioritizing conservation efforts. Four subspecies of Dunlin (Calidris alpina) migrate along the East Asian−Australasian Flyway. Each subspecies has a distinct and well-defined breeding range, but their migration and winter ranges are poorly defined or unknown. We assessed

Our understanding of songbird habitat needs during the breeding season stems largely from studies of nest success. However, growing evidence shows that nesting habitat and post-fledging habitat often differ. Management guidelines for declining species need to be reevaluated and updated to account for habitat shifts that may occur across the full breeding cycle. The Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora

Horned Screamers, Club-winged Manakins, and Bicolored Antbirds evoke specific memories to those who have seen these species and a great deal of wonderment to those who have not. These species, and thousands more, reside in the Neotropical realm with its deserts and rainforests, mangroves and scrublands, and steep elevational gradients, ranging from sea level to the high peaks of the Andes. The Neotropics

Evaluating population-level responses to conservation action following large-scale disturbance can improve the efficacy of future habitat conservation measures. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy storm surges cleared vegetation and opened inlets through the barrier islands, Fire Island and Westhampton Island, New York, creating Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) habitat. Storm effects prompted an island-wide

Intense trapping of the critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) for the international pet trade has devastated its populations across Indonesia such that populations of >100 individuals remain at only a handful of sites. We combined distance sampling with density surface modeling (DSM) to predict local densities and estimate total population size for one of these areas, Komodo

Eastern Purple Martins (Progne subis subis) have an unusually close relationship with humans, as they nest exclusively in man-made nest boxes. Current conservation policy directly promotes further interaction with this species by advocating regular replacement of nest materials during the nestling phase to reduce ectoparasite load and increase nestling fitness. We conducted the first test of the efficacy

Horned Screamers, Club-winged Manakins, and Bicolored Antbirds evoke specific memories to those who have seen these species and a great deal of wonderment to those who have not. These species, and thousands more, reside in the Neotropical realm with its deserts and rainforests, mangroves and scrublands, and steep elevational gradients, ranging from sea level to the high peaks of the Andes. The Neotropics

Studies of the effects of transmitters on wildlife often focus on survival. However, sublethal behavioral changes resulting from radio-marking have the potential to affect inferences from telemetry data and may vary based on individual and environmental characteristics. We used a long-term, multi-species tracking study of sea ducks to assess behavioral patterns at multiple temporal scales following

Montane birds are vulnerable to climate change. However, the mechanisms by which weather drives demographic processes in montane birds have seldom been investigated. We conducted a long-term study (2009–2019) on the Green-backed Tit (Parus monticolus), an insectivorous passerine, in the montane cloud forest of subtropical Taiwan. We explored the effects of weather variability on the productivity and

Millions of wetland basins, embedded in croplands and grasslands, are biodiversity hotspots in North America’s Prairie Pothole Region, but prairie wetlands continue to be degraded and drained, primarily for agricultural activities. Aerial insectivorous swallows are known to forage over water, but it is unclear whether swallows exhibit greater selection for wetlands relative to other habitats in croplands

Conservation efforts on private lands are important for biodiversity conservation. On private lands in South Carolina, in the southeastern United States, forestry management practices (prescribed burning, thinning, herbicide application) are used to improve upland pine habitat for wildlife and timber harvest and are incentivized through U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Bill cost-share programs.

Vultures are one of the most threatened bird groups globally. Although many of the threats faced by vultures have been identified, the impact of human activities on the social life of vultures has received little attention. In this paper, we emphasize the need to integrate vulture sociality into conservation practice. First, we summarize current knowledge on vulture social behavior, and the evolutionary

Populations of many vertebrates are declining and geographic ranges contracting, largely as a consequence of anthropogenic threats. Many reports of such decline, however, lack the breadth and detail to narrow down its causes. Here we describe population decline in the Common Loon (Gavia immer), a charismatic aquatic bird, based on systematic resighting and measurement of a marked population. During

Implementation and evaluation of conservation efforts requires an understanding of the habitat selection and reproductive success of endangered populations. As populations recover, established territory holders may force new arrivals into lower quality habitat, which can reduce reproductive success, especially in disturbed landscapes where suitable habitat is scarce. The endangered Western Yellow-breasted

The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a widespread, uncommon migrant that has experienced heavy population declines over the last century. This species can spend over a quarter of their annual cycle on migration, so it is important to determine their habitat requirements during stopover events to inform effective conservation planning. We assessed their habitat selection at an important stopover

The global breeding population of Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae) is distributed from the Canary Islands in the west, across the Mediterranean Sea, to Cyprus in the east. The remoteness of nesting colonies, which are predominantly located on sea cliffs and islets, renders breeding success estimation a challenging task, requiring a composite approach to assess each of the breeding stages. Early

Sensory pollutants such as anthropogenic noise and night lighting now expose much of the world to evolutionarily novel sound and night lighting conditions. An emerging body of literature has reported a variety of deleterious effects caused by these stimuli, spanning behavioral, physiological, population, and community-level responses. However, the combined influence of noise and light has received

Piscivorous birds are the primary source of catfish (Ictalurus spp.) depredation at aquaculture facilities in northwestern Mississippi. Of particular concern is the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), which can cost aquaculture producers millions of dollars annually through the depredation of cultured fish. Historical research conducted in the early 2000s estimated cormorant use of aquaculture

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is declining throughout the eastern United States due to hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand), an invasive insect from Asia. In the southern Appalachians, hemlock is concentrated in moist ravines and its decline threatens riparian ecosystems. Previous research on this invasion has focused on adelgid control and how hemlock decline affects community composition

In advance of large-scale development of offshore wind energy facilities throughout the U.S. Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), information on the migratory ecology and routes of federally threatened Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus melodus) is needed to conduct risk assessments pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. We tagged adult Piping Plovers (n = 150) with digitally coded

Conservation status and management priorities are often informed by population trends. Trend estimates can be derived from population surveys or models, but both methods are associated with sources of uncertainty. Many Arctic-breeding shorebirds are thought to be declining based on migration and/or overwintering population surveys, but data are lacking to estimate the trends of some shorebird species

Urban areas can be attractive to certain species because of increased food abundance and nesting availability, which in turn may increase productivity or breeding rates. However, there are also potential costs associated with urban living such as higher nest failure, poorer body condition, or increased prevalence of disease. These costs may result in species trading off the number of young produced

Estimating the population abundance of landbirds is a challenging task complicated by the amount, type, and quality of available data. Avian conservationists have relied on population estimates from Partners in Flight (PIF), which primarily uses roadside data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). However, the BBS was not designed to estimate population sizes. Therefore, we set out to

The Saltmarsh Sparrow (Ammospiza caudacuta) is a tidal marsh bird facing rapid population decline throughout its range, largely caused by degradation and loss of breeding habitat. Thus, there is a need to preserve tidal marshes in the northeastern United States, but to do so requires an understanding of the habitat features that support robust populations. Previous studies have shown Saltmarsh Sparrow

In the original publication of this article, one of the funders in the Acknowledgments section was incompletely named. The ‘U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’ funder name has been expanded to: The United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Airports and Airport Technology, Research and Development Branch. The article has been updated to reflect this change

As the global human population increases, and many bird populations in the Neotropics and the rest of the world continue to decline, the study of the intersection of humans, birds, and conservation has become more relevant than ever. The field of conservation social science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the social sciences and humanities to examine research questions that have implications

Passive acoustic monitoring using autonomous recording units (ARUs) is a fast-growing area of wildlife research especially for rare, cryptic species that vocalize. Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) populations have been monitored since the mid-1980s using mark–recapture methods. To evaluate an alternative survey method, we used ARUs to detect calls of Northern Spotted Owls and Barred

Artificial light at night (ALAN) has become a pervasive anthropogenic stressor for both humans and wildlife. Although many negative impacts of ALAN on human health have been identified, the consequences for infectious disease dynamics are largely unexplored. With the increase in popularity of energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the effects of spectral composition of ALAN have also come into

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment described 4 classes of services or functions that ecosystems and their component parts deliver to the benefit of humans: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. Birds, including Neotropical birds, provide a diverse array of services in all 4 classes. We review the literature describing ecosystem services provided by Neotropical birds, draw inference

Owls play crucial roles in the environment and provide ecosystem services making them important to monitor and study. However, standardized methods for most species do not exist, and we lack understanding of the effects of many environmental variables and call-broadcast on detection of owls during surveys. We performed a multispecies occupancy analysis of owl monitoring data collected from 2004 to

An understanding of how tropical bird communities might respond to climate change and other types of environmental stressors seems particularly urgent, yet we still lack, except for a few sites, even snapshot inventories of avian richness and abundances across most of the tropics. Such benchmark measurements of tropical bird species richness and abundances could provide opportunities for future repeat

The Atlantic Forest is the second largest tropical moist forest domain in South America after the Amazon, home to over 800 bird species (223 endemics or 27% of the avifauna). With only 28% of the original vegetation left, mostly fragmented and altered, the Atlantic Forest is a hotspot for bird conservation. We first introduce the extent, vegetation types, and exploitation history of the domain, and

For decades, ecologists have studied fundamental questions of how Amazonian biodiversity is maintained, and whether that diversity can persist following deforestation. The long history of avian research at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, near Manaus, Brazil, has helped advance this understanding in the context of a broader research program focused on rainforest fragments embedded

The Amazon has a long history of disturbance under subsistence agriculture, but slash-and-burn agriculture is small in scale and has relatively low impact on resident avifauna. More recently, the Amazon has suffered extensive deforestation in favor of cattle ranching and other modern systems of agriculture. Cattle pastures, mechanized agriculture, and even tree plantations have detrimental effects

In the Neotropics, coffee production occurs on a large scale in some of the planet’s most biodiverse regions: tropical mountains. Coffee production systems involving shade trees are considered to have a lower impact on biodiversity than alternative sun coffee. To date, the majority of evidence for the value of shade coffee plantations has not taken into account the relative quality of this habitat

Multiple invasive cavity-nesting bird species can be present in a nest web, the network linking birds using cavities. We investigated the nest preferences and breeding phenologies of the cavity-nesting guild in the region surrounding Miami, Florida, USA, where invasive starlings, mynas, and parrots potentially usurp cavities from native woodpeckers and secondary cavity-nesters. We asked if the timing

Over the past decade, the United States has seen a rapid increase in oil and gas extraction from areas where resources were previously thought to be unrecoverable, particularly the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota. The Bakken overlaps with the Prairie Pothole Region, the most critical habitat in North America for breeding ducks, where oil and gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing has the

Forest fragmentation is a leading driver of biodiversity loss, yet its effects on positive species interactions remain poorly known. We examined the effects of fragmentation on mixed-species bird flocks in the Western Andes of Colombia. Using 500-m transect surveys (n = 14 transects), we sampled flocks in 8 fragments (range: 10–173 ha) and an unfragmented reference site within the same altitudinal

Studies examining impacts of land cover typically focus on abundance, distribution, and/or community richness, overlooking underlying demographic processes such as survival or reproduction. Here, we present findings from a unique dataset that allowed us to measure the relationship between land cover and reproductive output across the distribution of the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura). We used hunter-derived

First-year survival probability of migratory passerines during the period between fledging and first reproduction is a highly variable parameter that has a major effect on population dynamics. We used a long-term mark–recapture dataset (2002–2018) to examine first-year survival of 3 passerine species breeding in abandoned agricultural fields of northwestern Russia: Booted Warbler (Iduna caligata),

Migratory bottlenecks concentrate individuals and populations of Nearctic–Neotropical migrants from across vast breeding areas. The extent to which such concentrations occur has important ramifications for interpreting migratory connectivity and for the vulnerability of populations throughout the annual cycle but investigations of such phenomena are rare. We inferred breeding origins of 11 species

Birds provide ecosystem services (pest control) in many agroecosystems and have neutral or negative ecological effects (disservices) in others. Large-scale, conventional row crop agriculture is extremely widespread globally, yet few studies of bird effects take place in these agroecosystems. We studied indirect effects of insectivorous birds on corn and soybean crops in fields adjacent to a prairie

Light pollution is increasing and artificial light sources have great impacts on animals. For migrating birds, collisions caused by artificial light pollution are a significant source of mortality. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that birds have different visual sensitivities to different colors of light, but few field experiments have compared birds’ responses to light of different wavelengths

Birds provide multiple ecological services that benefit humans including pollination. In Africa, sunbirds are the dominant vertebrate pollinator. Here we present a species-level assessment for African sunbirds of the number and relative frequency of their food plants that have useful properties to humans. We conducted this analysis by compiling and integrating known sunbird food plants with useful

The Population Ecology and Conservation of Charadrius Plovers, ColwellMark A. and HaigSusan M., Editors. 2019. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. xii + 330 pp., 18 color illustrations, 51 b/w illustrations. $199.95 (hardcover), $180.00 (eBook). ISBN: 9781498755825 (hardcover), ISBN: 9781315152882 (eBook)

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic heavy metal that, when methylated to form methylmercury (MeHg), bioaccumulates in exposed animals and biomagnifies through food webs. The purpose of this study was to assess Hg concentrations in raptors migrating through the upper midwestern USA. From 2009 to 2012, 966 raptors of 11 species were captured at Hawk Ridge, Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Breast feathers were sampled to

The Birds of Indiana by Russell E. Mumford and Charles E. Keller. 2019. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana. First printing 1984, Reprint 2019. x + 376 pp., 166 color plates. $50.00 (hardcover). ISBN 0-253-10736-9, ISBN 978-0-253-04328-2 (reprint 2019).

The San Clemente Bell’s Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli clementeae) is a federally threatened subspecies endemic to San Clemente Island, California. Previous research suggested dependence on boxthorn (Lycium californicum) as breeding habitat and nesting substrate; however, this conclusion was based on data collected when introduced feral ungulates had severely degraded the soil and vegetation cover.

Recovering predators can create challenges for conservation objectives when they prey on vulnerable species. Although largely uncommon, pinniped predation of birds presents one such challenge. Here, we describe the novel characteristics of this predator–prey interaction, its impact on bird populations, and possible mitigation responses. We do so both broadly, synthesizing the wider literature, and

Populations of birds that forage on aerial insects have been declining across North America for several decades, but the main causes of and reasons for geographical variation in these declines remains unclear. We examined the habitat use and survival of post-fledging Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, using VHF radio telemetry. We predicted that fledgling Barn

Upon reproductive failure, many bird species make a secondary attempt at nesting (hereafter, “renesting”). Renesting may be an effective strategy to maximize current and lifetime reproductive success, but individuals face uncertainty in the probability of success because reproductive attempts initiated later in the breeding season often have reduced nest, pre-fledging, and post-fledging brood survival