Project Description
The desert grasslands of Sonora, the southwestern U.S., and northern Mexico are globally important to North American grasslands birds in winter. This project will deliver information on the abundance, distribution, and inter-annual movements of wintering grasslands birds in Sonora, including up to 30 priority species, in relation to other desert grasslands in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. This project will expand activities in Sonora that are part of an ongoing, bi-national, regional winter grassland bird inventory and monitoring partnership in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands region. Specifically, we will conduct 24 additional 1-km line transects using Distance-sampling in grasslands in four ~300 km2 study blocks in northern Sonora, in order to inventory and monitor over-wintering grassland birds and their habitats in the region, and determine species-habitat relationships. We will also distribute Spanish-language grassland bird education and outreach materials to landowners whose properties we work on and other people working and living in grasslands. We will cooperate with and train Mexican partners to implement this project and help build their capacity for future conservation. This project will help establish a framework for grassland conservation in Sonora and northern Mexico that will help reduce and mitigate accelerating threats in the region.