Landbirds Blog Posts

"Coming to California exposed me to a variety of birds that I was not familiar with. That’s why I was really looking forward to joining Point Blue Conservation Science for two days to observe their mist netting, which would allow me to see the birds up close for the first time. Point Blue’s work in stream-side areas of Golden Gate and Point Reyes in partnership with the National Park Service forms the core of the San Francisco Bay Area Network’s Landbird Monitoring Program."

Scientists have abundant data on bird population trends and on climate change impacts to habitats around the world. For birds that stay in one place year round, linking the two to study bird population responses to climate change is relatively straightforward. But migratory birds spend time in different places at different times. As a result, all of that existing data isn’t enough to tease apart how climate impacts birds at different stages of their annual journeys.

It’s ironic: the official bird of San Francisco and the State of California, the native California quail, is locally extinct within the city of San Francisco. Land managers have mused about reintroducing the iconic species. But what would it take?

April 2021 - Where do different populations of a migratory songbird go when they migrate? This mystery was first put forth by Audubon scientists over a century ago, and the answer might hold the key to protecting declining populations of a once-common species, the Swainson’s thrush. In 2014 Point Blue Conservation Science ecologists began a migration study to investigate, and the results were published in prominent scientific journal, Nature.

For decades, Point Blue Conservation Science has been counting and banding birds at their Palomarin Field Station at the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore. In some cases, their data sets extend back more than 50 years. Now, they have released a new portal making it easier than ever to explore that data: the Palomarin Field Station Data Explorer.

Migratory birds may travel great distances to take advantage of optimal feeding conditions. For example, birds that eat bugs may be adapted to arrive at their spring breeding grounds just as insects are emerging en masse after a cold winter. Other birds may journey to escape seasonal challenges like frigid temperatures. But now Earth’s climate is changing fast, in many ways and at many spatial scales.

The National Audubon Society has created research summaries for 274 national park units that describe how projected changes in climate under different emissions scenarios are likely to affect local bird populations.

Decades of habitat change at Point Blue’s Palomarin Field Station in Point Reyes National Seashore have seen a conversion of shrubland to dense Douglas-fir forest, as well as an 85% decline in the local white-crowned sparrow population. A recent paper used 30 years of data to understand how plant community changes at the site affected both the reproductive success and habitat selection of this bird species.

- How Will Climate Change Affect National Park Bird Communities?
- Will Tidal Wetlands Survive a Rising Pacific?