Using Birds to Measure the Impacts of Restoration
Data from MoSI, a long-term bird monitoring program, is being used to help measure the impact of vegetation restoration in the Colorado River Delta.
Bendire’s Thrasher Pathways Project
Occurring patchily and rarely, the secretive habits and cryptic plumage of the desert dwelling Bendire’s Thrasher make it difficult to detect. Facing steep population declines and a lack of knowledge about its life history, researchers are working together to learn more about their migratory pathways to aid conservation efforts.
Status of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Sonora, Mexico
While well studied in the U.S., abundance and distribution data for Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Mexico are lacking. Of particular significance for further study are cuckoo populations in Sonora, whose conservation and management could potentially contribute to the recovery of populations in adjacent Arizona.
The Power of Partnerships
The strength of the SJV comes from bringing together a diverse set of partners from both countries to share our experiences and work towards collaborative conservation actions. Here are some recent highlights that have come out of the SJV partnership.
Hummingbird Response to Change
The Hummingbird Monitoring Network is working to understand hummingbird responses to change in order to provide resources and opportunities for engaging partners in hummingbird and pollination services conservation.
Desert Avicaching: Coordinated Bird Monitoring through Citizen Science
The 2018 pilot season of Desert Avicaching was a success! Check out some of our initial results and lessons learned from the project.
Greater Phoenix Area Waterbird Survey
As one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, Phoenix’s newer desert communities frequently entail water features. These artificial water bodies attract numerous species of waterbirds, prompting a need for coordinated monitoring efforts to track their status, population trends, and the potential for urban-wildlife conflict.
Monitoring Migratory Waterbirds in Mexico’s Wetlands
The coastal wetlands of northwestern Mexico are some of the most important habitat for migratory waterbirds that winter in Mexico. With funding support from the Sonoran Joint Venture’s Awards Program, a coordinated monitoring protocol was developed and implemented through a collaborative effort across priority sites to better inform conservation and management decisions.
Movements of Sandhill Cranes
With rapidly growing development of wind energy and its associated infrastructure, future impacts on wildlife are poorly understood. Biologist (and SJV board member!) Dan Collins, along with many partners, are working to better understand the movements of the Western Greater Sandhill Crane to inform agencies and land managers on where to target wintering landscapes for conservation.
Threats to Thrashers of the Desert Southwest
Two of the fastest declining species in desert habitats are Bendire’s Thrashers and LeConte’s Thrashers. Little is known about these species, which limits the effectiveness of conservation and management actions. The Desert Thrasher Working Group is aiming to change that through a multi-state monitoring program.
The “People” Part of Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation
In September 2017 waterfowl and wetlands biologists and managers, social scientists, and others with an interest in waterfowl conservation gathered in Shepherdstown, West Virginia for the Future of Waterfowl Workshop.
Birds Tell the Tale: Ecosystem Response to Habitat Restoration in the Colorado River Delta
Despite having lost roughly 80% of historical wetlands in the Colorado River basin, about 100,000 acres remain. These are the most important wetlands in the Sonoran Desert.
Birds Beyond Borders
A traveling teal brings biologists from Colorado State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nayarit, Mexico together and proves the importance of working across borders to conserve birds and their habitats.
Aridland Bird Conservation in the SJV Region – Then and Now
A 1973 article in American Birding Association’s American Birds about the urgent need for information about aridland bird habitats in the West reminds us that our work to monitor and conserve these habitats is more important than ever.
Partners Share Progress on Bird and Habitat Conservation at SJV Board Meeting
At its winter meeting, the SJV Management Board hosted partners such as Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, Pronatura Noroeste, and Intermountain Bird Observatory to share progress on bird conservation in the SJV region.
Research and Conservation Needs of Long-billed Curlews Wintering in the SJV Region
Did you know Long-billed Curlews are snowbirds? Researchers from Intermountain Bird Observatory found that birds breeding in the Intermountain West are wintering in the Mexicali and Imperial valleys of the Sonoran Joint Venture. IBO Research Director Dr. Jay Carlisle shares some thoughts on collaboration for conserving this declining species.
Prescott College Publishes 5-Year Study of Wading Birds in Bahía Kino, Sonora, Mexico
A recent study of wading birds in Bahía Kino in Western Sonora, Mexico, may prove critical to future efforts to conserve birds and their habitats in this unique and vital area.
Join us in Chiapas: detecting and addressing climate change impacts on birds and their habitats in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States
Rapid ongoing climate change presents new challenges to natural resource managers. Effects are usually at large landscape scales and management actions must account for future uncertainty, often based solely on locally available data. Because birds are known to be indicators of ecosystem health and function and are cost effective to survey at multiple scales, they … Read more
Sonoran Desert Breeding Bird Surveys: a coordinated approach
By John Arnett, Edwin Juarez and Kurt Licence The Sonoran Desert, an environment with blistering summer temperatures, frigid winter nights, and months of no precipitation, tests many of its residents to the thresholds of their physiological tolerances. Over 60 species of birds breed in this environment and many populations are naturally small and typically at … Read more
Breeding Bird Surveys in northern Mexico
By Vicente Rodríguez and Diana Venegas The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is a large-scale, long-term bird monitoring program originally designed to understand population trends of various species that were affected by DDT in the middle of the 20th century. Now, with more than 30 years of accumulated data, the results from the BBS are one … Read more