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Birding research

High hopes for a nearly extinct sparrow as mating seasons begins

by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal February 23, 2021

written by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

It’s almost mating season for the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, a spring ritual dating back thousands of years on the Florida prairie. But this may be the year that determines whether a rescue mission can turn things around for the country’s most endangered bird.

A year-old grasshopper sparrow just before its release into the grasslands. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Every week starting this month, researchers are releasing a half dozen or more young sparrows raised in captivity to try and boost breeding in the wild and stabilize the overall population.

The releases are the final step in a long, complex restoration plan that’s taken shape over the two decades since the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow’s sudden collapse. Now researchers will be watching the sparrows’ every move as they hope nature will take its course.

Juan Oteyza, the state research scientist who oversees the project along with Karl Miller, watched the first batch of sparrows disappear into the Florida prairie south of Orlando one morning earlier this month.

“They’re on their own now,’’ he said.

That isn’t entirely true: It’s up to the sparrows to fan out over the grasslands, find mates, build nests and raise a new batch of chicks. But a team of human helpers will be on hand to monitor the mating rituals, locate the nests and then raise them out of the reach of flood waters. They’ll also encircle the nests with fences to ward off predators. Each new family is tracked daily for five months to see if the sparrow population increases.

Here’s a video of this spring’s first release, taken with a remote camera, so the picture is slightly fuzzy. But you can see the sparrow’s hesitant reaction to the prospect of freedom — followed by a plunge into the grasslands:

February 23, 2021 1 comment

Birding Birding research Birding technology

This small wooden box may hold the future of hi-tech birding

by Anders Gyllenhaal January 6, 2021

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The future of hi-tech birding arrived in a small FedEx package the other day. It was a delivery we’d been looking forward to for months, so we went right to work.

The Haikubox, which stands about a foot tall, records songs and calls and immediately identifies the bird species.

Within minutes, I slipped the sleek, wooden box out of its container and plugged it in on our porch, where it went right to work on its ambitious task: Recording all the birdsong, calls and chips from the yard and instantly suggesting which birds are behind every peep.

Not long ago, we wrote about the smartphone apps you can take on the birding trail if you need help identifying birds by ear. This new invention, called the Haikubox, is the mother of the birdsong ID tools. It’s designed to be set up at your home and detect every nearby bird around the clock, day in and day out.

It’s like an instant X-ray of your avian neighborhood – or at least it will be when the development and fine-tuning is done about a year from now.

We’re lucky enough to be among the 20 testing volunteers to test out the preliminary version of the Haikubox. We plan to follow its creation and let you know how it goes on its way to the retail market. It’s expected to cost somewhere under $500, although the price hasn’t been set.

January 6, 2021 0 comment

Birding research Conservation Photography Species

Can we save this globe-trotting sandpiper? Only if we can unravel its secrets

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 30, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

It’s tempting to take the Sanderling for granted: The tiny, speed-walking shorebirds are fixtures on beaches all over the world, easily recognized by how they run along, forever one step ahead of the waves.

The Sanderling is among the smallest and most energetic of the dozens of species of sandpipers. At just two ounces, it’s about the weight of a golf ball. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal unless otherwise credited.

For years, this hyperactive sandpiper moved too fast for researchers to even be sure of its migration routes that stretch from the Arctic Circle to South America. Weighing in at just two ounces, Sanderlings were too small to carry the transmitters used to study other birds.

That’s finally changing. New research tools, such as ultra-light transmitters and techniques that analyze where birds have been by the carbon residue in their feathers, are uncovering the Sanderling’s secrets.

The research tells two stories: One is about the miraculous flying prowess of this globe-trotting species. The other is about how those unique abilities aren’t enough to overcome the changing coastal environment that has cut their population of about 300,000 in North America by more than a third since the 1970s.

Both study topics could end up helping other shorebirds as well.

“So many people think of these birds as doing fine, since they’re on every beach from California to the Gulf Coast,’’ said Jess Cosentino, a researcher working on a comprehensive study of Sanderlings in North America. “But the data is showing us they’re in precipitous decline.’’

Hundreds of Sanderling rise above Chaplin Lake on a preliminary flight before their next migration leg. Photo by Jess Cosentino, University of Saskatchewan

We spent a good part of our fall wandering the Atlantic coast, following warblers, raptors and shorebirds on the move. On the National Seashore along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, we found ourselves surrounded by crowds of Sanderlings on the near-empty beaches. The protected stretch of shoreline is one of the primary stopover spots for the birds on their migrations down the Atlantic coast.

Here’s a video that gives you a sense of how Sanderlings work together on the beaches:

November 30, 2020 3 comments

Bird of the Week Birding Birding research

Can the Wild Turkey survive? Thanksgiving is the least of its troubles.

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 22, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Something is after the Wild Turkey. Actually, almost everything is.

A Wild Turkey in Northern Virginia.

A combination of coyotes, loss of habitat, hawks, hunters, climate change and troubles in the nest is undermining the species that once competed for the title of national bird. In parts of the country, populations are down by half and the overall drop is about 15 percent.

“A lot of things like to eat turkeys,” said Michael Chamberlain, a University of Georgia wildlife expert who leads a 15-state consortium working to find a response.

For the past half century, the Wild Turkey was the poster bird for how to bring back a species approaching extinction. Starting in the 1970s, after decades of overhunting and habitat loss, hunters, environmentalists, wildlife managers and researchers joined forces in a campaign that pushed the nationwide population up to more than 7 million birds.

Michael Chamberlain

But today, the combination of accelerating development, warming temperatures and all those predators has started setting back that progress, particularly in southern states. “We thought maybe it was just a natural phenomenon, where the population had peaked,” said Chamberlain.. “But fast-forward to today, the populations are not doing as well.”

November 22, 2020 0 comment

Birding research Breeding and Nesting Conservation

Fledglings take flight: Good news for the nation’s most endangered bird

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 9, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The wildlife managers who bred more than 200 Florida Grasshopper Sparrows in a laboratory setting over the past two years knew they faced a tricky question when it came to releasing the birds into the wild this spring:

A Florida Grasshopper Sparrow about to be released

Would they know how to act like grasshopper sparrows?

Could they sing the sparrow’s unique courting song? Would they know how to hide from hawks? Would they have the instincts to build nests, mate with wild sparrows and raise their young together?

The captive-breeding experiment is the culmination of a decades-long project to revive the most endangered species in the U.S.. Only 30 pairs of the sparrows remained in the wild when the team decided they had no choice but to try producing chicks in captivity, then introducing them back into the wild in hopes they’d multiply.

The answers to all their questions came pouring in over the course of the breeding season that is now coming to a close.

A bundle of newborn sparrows in a hidden nest in the grasslands. Photo by Amanda Adams.

The birds not only mastered the routines of the mating season, they gave birth to a new generation of Florida Grasshopper Sparrows over the summer. ( Forty-two birds were born from captive-bred birds and altogether 64 were born from wild and captive-bred birds.) Almost all have now left the nest and flown off to begin life on their own.

“We’re very happy with what we saw this first season,’’ said Juan Oteyza, the research biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Institute that oversees the project. “It seems to be paying off.’’

Craig Faulhaber, avian conservation coordinator for the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said it was hard to tell the captive-bred from the wild sparrows. “They showed all the normal behaviors,” he said. “They bred successfully. They took care of their young. They acted just like wild sparrows.”

Flying Lesson: The project to save the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow has been full of discoveries for researchers. They’ve learned what it takes to breed birds in captivity, protect fragile nests from harm and how to begin to replenished the depleted population. It’s not yet clear if the project will be successful, but already the lessons are proving valuable to help understand the woes of the grassland birds like the sparrow.

September 9, 2020 1 comment

Birding research Migration

Spring migration helped save our sanity; can the fall migration finish the job?

by Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal September 4, 2020

written by Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal

Last spring, in the midst of the monotonous stay-at-home months, the spring migration not only saved the sanity of many but it helped launch a wave of new birders who discovered the wonders of the avian world just outside their windows.

As the fall migration gets started, it’s time to get back on the trails and pick up where we left off. If you are new to birding, there are some important things to know.

Juvenile Bald Eagles look nothing like the white-headed adults they will become. Photo by Anders Gyllenhaal

First off, a lot of birds will look much different than they did a few months before, making identifications tricky. That’s because some species, particularly male warblers, shed their brilliant breeding feathers, and the new ones aren’t nearly so distinct and colorful. Some guidebooks go so far as to call the fall birds drab.

To make matters more complicated, many young birds, eagles and gulls for example, are all splotchy and streaked and look nothing like their black-and-white parents.

Before you head out, it’s helpful to page through a guidebook to compare the fall and spring birds. And if you haven’t yet used the Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this is the time to start. Merlin is a free bird identification wizard that combines science, data and your cell phone’s geolocation. All you have to do is answer three simple questions, and the list of possible birds pops right up on your screen. Click here for more info.

The startling page of the Merlin Bird ID app

The good news is that the fall migration offers a lot of chances to practice your identification skills. This is a slow-motion show that stretches from mid-summer through the beginning of January. If you happen to miss one group, never fear. Billions of birds from hundreds of species are close behind, with ducks and geese generally bringing up the rear. Even within the same species, a few birds can arrive early and a few will be stragglers.

The timing varies depending on where you live.

Ducks like these Blue-winged Teals move south late in the migration.

For new birders busy building a life list of sightings, knowing exactly what to see when and where can be vexing – especially in a time of social distancing. Fall is usually a great time to take birding walks led by experts from local Audubon chapters, nature centers and at fall birding festivals. (While these group outings aren’t available for Fall 2020, another option might be to hire a private guide. Google “birding tour guides” for your location of interest.)

One other helpful tool is called BirdCast, a joint project between the Colorado State University, Cornell and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, that provides real-time projections on its website and in alerts about the amount of migrating birds around the country. BirdCast even has a tool where you can search your area for real-time alerts as to how prevalent migrating birds are on any given night. Click here.

A sample of a BirdCast map, showing the highest migration action in the Upper Midwest and across the South. You can get projections for your area simply by plugging in your location.

Developed over 20 years, the concept tracks the daily flow of birds during the migrations, which is useful for protecting birds, conservation efforts and also to help birders know when the chances are best of seeing birds. Much of the migration action is aloft at night, but birdwatchers can improve their chances of spotting birds the following days on the ground.

And here’s a portion of a post we wrote last spring about the expansion of Cornell’s newest and most powerful tool for birders that will help with your fall migration planning. These are beautiful and information-rich maps and animations that track most of the North American species over each month of the year. You can find a complete list of the maps by species here on the Cornell website.

The full development of these maps are so valuable to birders that Beverly and I couldn’t agree on what’s most important here. So we thought we’d each make our case and let you come to your own conclusions.

Canada Warbler / Photo by James Hully, Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Beverly: The best way to appreciate this work is to start by looking at one of these animations. They’re beautiful, with patches of bright colors flowing back and forth across a map of the hemisphere that represent migrating birds week by week throughout the year. I think these are the most compelling — and entertaining — of all the maps and illustrations that come under Cornell’s eBird umbrella.

For example, here’s an animation of how the tiny Canada Warbler travels the length of the hemisphere twice a year.

Not only can you watch the warblers’ weekly progress from far north Canada to Latin America and back, but you can use these maps to help figure out when they’re like to pass by you. And when you’re trying to find a bird you’ve never seen before, knowing exactly when the largest flocks are arriving is a huge help.

Anders: The point is that animations like the Canada Warbler, along with abundance, range and breeding maps, now exist for 610 species, which make up the bulk of the species in North America, in archives Cornell calls status and trends maps.

The lab began putting these together about two years ago as a way to convert their raw bird data into practical maps and show how birds move through the seasons of the year. The first batch of maps covered about 20 percent of the species, but the addition of the rest of the species opens all sorts of possibilities for comprehensive research and conservation approaches.

“This is a big jump in terms of the utility of the data project,’’ said Daniel Fink, a senior research associate at the Cornell Lab.

Go to the end of this post for a summary of the full lineup of birding options from Cornell.

Beverly: Any dedicated birder will be excited about the research and conservation possibilities. But the reason to put a focus on the birders in all of this is that we are helping to create the data.

Every time birders file checklists of species on their eBird app, Cornell collects the data in the first step of the process. Each checklist tells the number of birds spotted and exactly where they were.

As eBird has gained traction, the number of users has risen dramatically — with a total of 500,000 regular users to date who together have filed about 42 million checklists. That’s a lot of birds.

In the past two years alone, the number of visitors to eBird overall has nearly doubled, jumping from 2.6 million in 2017 to 5.2 million in 2019, said Ian Davies, the eBird project coordinator. About half of those visitors submit checklists of the birds they see that, once enhanced by radar and weather data, is the raw material for Cornell’s maps and animations.

“I never fail to be amazed at the collective power of people who appreciate birds,” said Davies. “None of this would be possible without people who care about birds.”

Anders: That’s a really important point, and I would guess one of the reasons contributors are increasing so much is because birders understand how our checklists serve the greater good.

Amanda Rodewald

Amanda Rodewald, director of conservation science at the lab and an ornithology professor at Cornell, said wildlife managers and bird organizations are using the data and maps to guide conservation plans — including more targeted measures than weren’t possible in the past.

One of the best examples is in California’s Central Valley, one of the nation’s agricultural centers that doubles as a flyway for birds. Biologists are working with farmers to flood their fields during a few weeks of migration to provide stopover for migrating birds.

This has dramatically increased the birds coming through, and also enables farming on those fields for all but a few weeks of the year.

“This project gives us so much more information from which we’re able to make really good decisions about the kind of conservation actions that are needed,’’ Rodewald said.

Beverly: The great thing about using these apps for birding is that you get back as much as you’re giving.

Every time you file a checklist, you’re building a lifetime list of every bird you’ve ever seen. Cornell stores the information online in your personal account, and you can refer back to your checklists at any time or download your own data. You can also see the checklists of other birders to figure out which species you’re most likely to see, and where, on any given day. We almost always use eBird to help us choose where to go birding — and even at what time of day. We use the companion app called Merlin Bird ID to help us immediately identify birds we don’t yet know. I still can’t believe it’s all free.

Anders: The last point to make is that this data and mapping provides the research firepower at a time when understanding the science of birds can help protect them.

Scientists once had to work from rough estimates of bird populations, and mere guesses about migration. Now they can draw on precision data on what birds are doing, how many there are and where they’re going.

In the last year alone, we’ve seen some of the most important avian research of our times, including major studies on the loss of about a third of the bird population, shifts in the timing of migration in North America and the likely impacts of climate change on birds. All told, eBird data has been used in about 300 scientific studies around the world.

“The data allows us just an unparalleled lens into the movement, the distribution and the abundance of birds,’’ said Cornell’s Amanda Rodewald.

The Barn Swallow is one of 610 species featured in maps and animations./ Photo by Brian E. Kushner, provided by Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Cornell data on birds comes in several forms, all free and each with different strengths. The most useful and portable for the birder in the field is found on the eBird smartphone app, which draws from raw data and is the most up to date guidance on where birds can be found. The eBird app is also how you file checklists and keep up with your life list. The companion Merlin Bird ID smartphone app can help you identify birds you see. On the Cornell eBird website, you can find a wealth of maps and species data. For maps and species information, go to the Explore section of the website. You’ll find an introduction to the status and trends maps that are the subject of this post under the Science section of the Cornell website. With so many places you can go for data, it can be confusing to find your way. But if you learn to use all these tools, they provide excellent guidance for finding species, understanding their practices and habitat and tracking their paths through the year.

Beverly: Let’s wind things up with an animation, this one of the Barn Swallow, another long-distance migratory bird that travels from Canada to the southernmost reaches of South America. It’s fall, and all these birds are headed our way. I can’t wait to get out there and start counting!

September 4, 2020 0 comment

Birding Birding research

Spoonbills keep expanding their reach — and building on their great popularity

by Anders Gyllenhaal July 30, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The Roseate Spoonbill, once a bird that stuck pretty close to home, is becoming a roaming vagabond.

A spoonbill in a rockery for wading birds near Melbourne, Fla. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Forced from South Florida by rising sea levels, deteriorating water quality and poor nesting conditions, hundreds of Spoonbills moved first up both coasts of Florida. Now they’re testing out fresh territories in almost every mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast state.

They’re turning up in bays and wetlands along the coasts as well as near inland cities and suburbs where they can be a startling sight for unsuspecting birders. Researchers say these forays often lead to nesting colonies in new locations that solidifies their arrival.

Jerry Lorenz

“Once they’ve found a new place, it’s only a matter of time before they’re nesting there,’’ said Dr. Jerry Lorenz, director of research at Audubon Florida and the nation’s leading Spoonbill expert.

With pinkish red plumage and gawky form reminiscent of their dinosaur lineage, the spoonbills have great popular appeal, which is expanding as their reach spreads out. Our package last year on the spoonbill’s move north into Georgia and South Carolina was among the best-read Flying Lesson’s posts ever.

July 30, 2020 1 comment

Birding Birding research Conservation

How the lockdown has helped birds — or has it?

by Anders Gyllenhaal July 7, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

A surprising thing happened at the Wild Bird Unlimited store in Raleigh, N.C., when the pandemic struck and shut down almost all of the retail stores that surrounded them.

Suddenly, their business started booming.

Arlette Early (right) and Judy Rosengarten at their store in Raleigh, N.C.

All kinds of new customers, stuck in their homes at the height of the spring migration, began tuning in to the nearby birds, often for the first time. Demand jumped for feeders, bird seed and the birding supplies that Wild Birds specializes in.

“We worked out a way to have curb-side service,’’ said Arlette Early, who helps operate the shop. “It was so busy.’’

The widespread embrace of birding is one part of an unexpected phenomenon unfolding in the midst of the pandemic. At a time when many species have been in decline for years, the slowed economy, reduction in human activity and the growing interest in birdwatching could end up helping birds in ways nothing else has.

The relief could be momentary, and some worry that the push to restart the economy now underway could run over wildlife protections and end up making conditions worse than before the virus.

July 7, 2020 1 comment

Birding Birding research

Coming soon: A foolproof way you can instantly ID that birdsong

by Anders Gyllenhaal June 19, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

First of two parts

For more than a year, a CD of birdsongs was stuck deep inside our car stereo and would start playing without warning on every drive. By the time we finally dislodged the CD, Beverly had committed almost all the songs to memory while I was still struggling to tell the Tufted Titmouse from the Song Sparrow.

The art of birding by ear has always separated the truly gifted birder from the rest of us. But help is on the way for those of us who struggle. A scientific research project designed to track birds by their sounds has turned out to have a wonderfully practical use for the common birder.

It can decipher birdsongs the way the Shazam app identifies music.

We’re devoting two weeks on Flying Lessons to the art and science of birdsongs. Today’s post looks at modern research’s advances in tracking songs and calls. Next week, Beverly will tell her story of how learning specific songs can vastly enrich your birding — and she’ll share ideas on how to make progress.

The latest form of the Haikubox. The poetic name is intentionally vague so that future versions might be used for a wider variety of research purposes.

The most interesting development on the science front is a new device, called the Haikubox, coming out later this year. You’ll set it up in your yard or porch, and it will identify every birdsong within reach of the recorder. Then it will send a stream of IDs to your computer or phone, providing a comprehensive census of nearby bird life.

“We think we have a good idea,’’ said David Mann, head of Loggerhead Instruments, a small Florida company working with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to develop the device. “It’s going to be a great learning tool.’’

At the same time, smartphone apps that deliver precise IDs are now becoming available. Unlike early versions of these apps, the latest draw on thousands of songs and call samples that make them far more accurate.

Cornell Lab Director John Fitzpatrick

John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab, says people have been clamoring for just such a tool for years. “If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked when there’d be a Shazam for birds, I’d be able to fund all this research with that alone,’’ he said.

The lab itself is behind much of this progress.

Cornell established its Center for Conservation Bioacoustics to apply the study of sound to bird research. Since birds are so vocal, scientists found they can track migration, breeding and overall populations by recording their calls and songs. The field took off when tech companies started sharing their software for deciphering photos and text for internet searches.

Over the past several years, Cornell and an array of academic and commercial partners perfected the recording technology, sound equipment and artificial intelligence applications used to analyze the bird recordings. Today, Cornell has an archive of 6,000 species it can identify through bioacoustics.

The beauty of bioacoustics is that it enables research in places too remote to easily reach, in rain forests and on distant islands, for instance, where scientists are studying endangered species. (Here’s a link to our story on this science that ran in the Washington Post in January.)

The same research mechanics are powering the tools for deciphering songs and calls for birders.

Holger Klinck with one of the devices that collects bird calls and songs

The Haikubox, which looks like an oversized wooden birdhouse, will keep an ongoing record of every song and call it collects. It converts the sounds to spectrographs and compares them against its library of sounds. Depending on the weather and noise levels, it will collect sounds up to several hundred feet away.

“You can put it in your backyard and hook it up to your wireless network,’’ said Holger Klinck, director of the Cornell bioacoustics center. “It will continually detect species 24/7.

“It’s a gateway to bring new people into the world of birds and get excited about it,’’ he said.

Loggerhead’s David Mann

Loggerhead’s David Mann said he’s not exactly sure who all might be likely to buy one of the devices, which are expected to cost under $500. The most likely customers are birders, but he hopes it will appeal to all kinds of people with an interest in the environment.

As he tests out a version of the Haikubox at his home in Sarasota, Florida, he found he was suddenly much more interested in the birds coming through. “I found I was paying more attention,’’ he said. “Since you get real time feedback. I’d hear something and say, ‘What was that?’ You can go and look.’’

Song Sleuth app

The Haikubox joins a long line of birdsong recognition systems, most of which are apps that tend to work for only a small sample of songs — if at all. Here’s a review of some of the early versions, and here’s one of a popular app called Song Sleuth that’s draws on a library of 200 species and gives you a choice of likely contenders.

BirdNET app

Cornell’s own app called BirdNET has set a new standard for accuracy, since it draws on the lab’s huge library of sounds. BirdNET’s Android version has been downloaded a million times. Its Apple version was supposed to be available last year, but has been slow to reach market. Cornell makes its research available for free to other makers, so the quality of these apps should get steadily better.

Holger Klinck, looking over the system used to test the bioacoustic network set up around the lab’s campus

This is good news for birders – but also for birds.

The results of the sightings on the apps, the Haikubox and whatever other products come along all help feed Cornell’s research with data on where birds are and where they’re going.

Like the eBird apps, which birders use to record the birds they see, the data has fueled the world’s most successful citizen science project and has helped track bird populations all over the world. The birdsong identifiers will add to that store of knowledge – and will be even more accurate because of the precision of these devices.

“It’s all about developing methods that allow us to do a comprehensive job of assessing what’s going on in remote areas. That’s the end goal,’’ said Klinck. “The data is what drives conservation.’’

Loggerhead Instruments is testing the Haikubox with a network of beta users around the county. We’re going to be one of these testers starting this summer and will post our experiences on Flying Lessons from time to time.

And finally, here’s a video that gives you a sense of what you see on your computer as birds are identified by the Haikubox:

June 19, 2020 2 comments