Through a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies is partnering with private landowners in Morgan County, Colorado to eliminate cheatgrass—an extremely invasive weed that outcompetes native vegetation, reduces habitat quality and increases fire hazards.
Nineteen Mennonite students from Cuauhtémoc recently joined us in the field and experienced a day in the life of bird biologists. Representing a vital piece of the conservation puzzle in Chihuahua, their visit opens new pathways for awareness, conversation and collaboration to help grassland birds on Mexico’s wintering grounds.
The effects of the Federal Government shutdowns are far-reaching and have a lasting impact on bird conservation, regional economies, our nation’s farmers and producers, and our natural resources.
Barr Lake’s fall banding station had an incredible season with 1,902 individual birds caught last year—more than any year in over a decade! The station celebrates another chapter of educating visitors of all ages about the importance of birds in our lives, while also contributing to our understanding of bird distribution, population levels, and conservation needs at key migration stopover habitat.
This year marks the 119th year for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC), where volunteers across the country came out to add to a century of community science data. Bird Conservancy of the Rockies helped organize two local CBCs at Barr Lake and Fort Collins, and we are excited to provide this report from the field!
2018 marks our eighth season banding Northern Saw-whet Owls in the western Dakotas and gathering useful data about the migratory habits of this charismatic species.
Black Swifts are thought to forage long distances from their nest sites, but their basic movement ecology is unknown. Knowledge about daily foraging routes and distances will help identify flight patterns, foraging hotspots and habitat relationships—critical to understanding the conservation needs of this enigmatic species.
This summer, a small group set out into the high peaks of New Mexico in search of breeding populations of Brown-capped Rosy-Finches—something that hasn’t been recorded in the state for almost 30 years.
Traditional and high-tech tools are revealing details about where Mountain Plovers spend time during migration and over winter—highlighting critical habitat locations and guiding much-needed conservation efforts.
How many birds can you accurately count in six minutes using sound as well as sight? The ability to correctly recognize birds by ear is a vital skill for our teams, one that takes a lot of effort to master. IMBCR technician Beth Raboin shares how she uses context and associations—and a dash of baseball—as an aid to her auditory memory.
