Bird Conservation Winter 2021-2022

BIRDCONSERVATION The Magazine of American Bird Conservancy

WINTER 2021-2022

the Americas. With an emphasis on achieving results and working in partnership, we take on the greatest threats facing birds today, innovating and building on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation.

abcbirds.org A copy of the current financial statement and registration filed by the organization may be obtained by contacting: ABC, P.O. Box 249, The Plains, VA 20198. 540-253-5780, or by contacting the following state agencies:

Brown-headed Nuthatch by Frode Jacobsen, Shutterstock

birds and their habitats throughout

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Florida: Division of Consumer Services, toll-free number within the state: 800-435-7352.

Maryland: For the cost of copies and postage: Office of the Secretary of State, Statehouse, Annapolis, MD 21401.

Virginia: State Division of Consumer Affairs, Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23209.

West Virginia: Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305.

Registration does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation by any state.

Bird Conservation is the member magazine of ABC and is published three times yearly.

Senior Editor: Howard Youth VP of Communications: Clare Nielsen Graphic Design: Gemma Radko Contributors: Erin Chen, Jennifer Davis, Naamal De Silva, Chris Farmer, Jane Fitzgerald, Steve Holmer, Daniel J. Lebbin, John C. Mittermeier, Jack Morrison, Merrie Morrison, Michael J. Parr, Amy Upgren, George E. Wallace, David Wiedenfeld, EJ Williams, Kelly Wood

Photo by Naamal De Silva

New York: Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Winter 2021-22

For more information contact: American Bird Conservancy P.O. Box 249, 4249 Loudoun Avenue The Plains, VA 20198 540-253-5780 • info@abcbirds.org COVER: Swallow-tailed Kites

by Ruth Pannunzio.

ABC is proud to be a BirdLife Partner

Swallow-tailed Kite by Eleanor Briccetti

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New Jersey: Attorney General, State of New Jersey: 201-504-6259.

Pennsylvania: Department of State, toll-free number within the state: 800-732-0999.

Eastern White Oak seedling by jurgal, Shutterstock

ABC is dedicated to conserving wild

LEFT: The Festive Coquette was recently split into two species. The Butterfly Coquette is more widespread in northern and central South America, while the Festive Coquette is endemic to southeastern Brazil. Photo by Glenn Bartley. See p. 27 for more on bird taxonomy.

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

Honoring Place

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Thoughtfulness That Helps Self, Birds, and Others p. 14

Conserving Land While Benefiting Communities p. 4

The Mighty White Oak

ON THE WIRE

Branching Out for Wildlife p. 17

BIRDS IN BRIEF p. 12

Chasing “Paper” Kites How Forestry Is Working for a Fork-tailed Beauty p. 20

Split Decisions

The Taxonomic Revolution and How It Affects Conservation p. 27

p. 6

ABC BIRDING Current River Hills/Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri p. 30

BIRD HERO Home-town Conservationist Helps Reforest Peru's High Andes p. 34

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BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Conserving Land While Benefiting Communities S

ome would say that protected areas are the single greatest contribution to wildlife survival that the conservation community has created to date. From the first national park — Yellowstone — founded in 1872, to the first national wildlife refuge — Pelican Island — founded in 1903, the U.S. has been at the forefront of protected area creation. While protected areas date back much earlier — hunting preserves for the wealthy and powerful in Asia, for example — it would be fair to say that the U.S. has been among the leading nations to implement and advance the concept of formal conservation areas open to the public.

Today, close to 17 percent of Earth’s land and around 10 percent of its marine surface is included in protected areas. While most cite this as a major accomplishment, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. For example, the familiar Shenandoah National Park — a beloved monument to fall colors and eastern mountain forests — has a troubled past tainted by the forced resettlement of 2,000 of its original residents and the segregation of visitors that was the status quo in much of America around the time the park was established in 1935.

A new global initiative to double Earth’s protected area footprint by 2030 was ratified on September 10 in Marseille, France, by governments attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The memorably

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named 30x30 Initiative (which aims to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030) began with donors and NGOs, and gathered steam earlier this year with commitments from 50 nations in a coalition led by Costa Rica, France, and the United Kingdom. The Biden Administration then joined other countries in calling for action toward the 30x30 goal. Following the IUCN Congress, proponents hope that the initiative will be ratified by more nations at the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting taking place in China as we go to press.

Participants in 30x30 have been careful to define the word “protection” inclusively; in other words, conveying the idea that “protected” doesn’t necessarily mean “off-limits” to people. In recent years, the phrase “Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures” (OECMs) has been added to the conservation lexicon as an alternative. The term acknowledges that land can be conserved without the type of intervention that previously soiled the reputation of Shenandoah National Park and some other controversial protected areas around the world. “OECMs” acknowledge the need for stewardship of the land by landowners, indigenous communities, and other stakeholders who use or have a connection to the land. Historically, land managed by indigenous communities has often

enjoyed better and more sustainable protection than lands managed by modern government agencies.

Ultimately, though, if biodiversity and Earth’s climate are to remain sufficiently intact, some areas of the planet are going to need to be off-limits to human development.

How we navigate protecting the planet while still ensuring equity and the inclusion of stakeholder communities is probably the most critical challenge to ensuring that habitat conservation is able to succeed. ABC is in discussions with the Biden Administration about ways to deliver expanded habitat conservation across the American landscape without compromising private land rights.

We are also working diligently with Latin American partners to ensure that bird reserves we are responsible for establishing and supporting are managed as intact ecosystems and designed in ways to provide maximum benefits to surrounding communities. These reserves can conserve bird habitat while also creating jobs in bird tourism; ensuring that watersheds are protected (benefiting nearby agriculture); and preventing sediment runoff that can impact clean water and fisheries. While well-thought-out and implemented regulations can be extremely effective, ABC’s work with private landowners in both forested and grassland habitats demonstrates that

We are working diligently with Latin American partners to ensure that bird reserves we are responsible for establishing and supporting are managed as intact ecosystems and designed in ways to provide maximum benefits to surrounding communities.

ABOVE: Community members dig holes and plant native trees during the annual Queuña Raymi festival, run by Peruvian partner ECOAN and supported by ABC. (See also p. 34.) Photo

by David Wiedenfeld, 2016.

improved conservation on private lands can also be accomplished without regulation. For example, subsidies can be deployed to benefit land and habitat management and bird conservation goals.

ABC is leading the way in demonstrating how more land can be effectively conserved while benefiting landowners and communities. Our flexible approach — using BirdScapes as a means of setting landscape conservation goals for migratory birds, and expanding our Latin American Bird Reserve Network to prevent the extinction of rare endemic species — can help realize the global goal of expanding protection for birds and biodiversity

while also ensuring that indigenous and landowner rights are respected and protected. ABC data — through the Alliance for Zero Extinction, for example — on the most important sites to protect can also provide a vital tool to help locate conservation areas where they can do the most good. Read more about ABC’s land and habitat conservation work on our website at abcbirds.org.

Michael J. Parr President

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ON the WIRE New Reserve Bolsters Protection for Central Brazilian Endemics

Birdability and ABC Partnership Begins with Interview Series

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irdability and ABC launched a partnership in October that began with a six-part interview series that runs through March, entitled “Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges.”

n September, with ABC support, Brazilian NGO Instituto Araguaia added a 470-acre private reserve to the Cantão Corridor, an exceptional area where Amazon flooded forests on the Araguaia River meet one of the richest lowland areas of the cerrado (tropical savannah) biome.

The convergence of these two biomes creates an extraordinarily biodiverse region: More than 450 bird species occur in the area, including the globally threatened Chestnut-bellied Guan and Kaempfer’s Woodpecker, as well as other endemic species, including the Bananal Antbird and Araguaia Spinetail. ABC partner Instituto Araguaia works to protect and manage reserves across the Cantão Corridor, provide educational and research opportunities in the region, and build local support for the conservation of this unique area.

The Cantão, which has never been logged, has a tree canopy that is over 65 feet tall, pristine marshes, and a group of oxbow lakes where Endangered Giant Otters den and Amazon River Dolphins forage. The area is at the northern tip of the Bananal wetlands, and is designated as a Ramsar Wetland of Global Importance, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, as well as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

ABC is grateful to Jennifer Speers, C. David Cook, and the estate of Mary Janvrin for their generous support for this project.

B

“Birding made me happier than I’d ever been, and consistently shows me my best self,” says Virginia Rose, Birdability’s founder. The organization is dedicated to ensuring “the birding community and the outdoors are welcoming, inclusive, safe, and accessible for everybody.” Rose, a manual wheelchair user who has been birding for 17 years, says: “Understanding the unique perspectives

of all kinds of people with access challenges is the first step, and this interview series will be a wonderful way to do that.”

In the series, interviewees discuss their birding experiences, what everyday life is like living with their disabilities or other health challenges, and what they need from the birding community to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

“We hope that birders (and people who aren’t birders — yet!) with similar access challenges will experience the power of representation, and may learn of other ways they might

engage with birding — using adaptive birding equipment, for example, or how to advocate in the birding community for what they need,” says series host, Birdability Coordinator, and occupational therapist Freya McGregor. “These interviews should be a great learning opportunity for nondisabled birders, too, who want to ensure they’re as welcoming and inclusive as possible.”

New interviews will be held live online on the first Tuesday of every month until March 1, 2022.

To register, go to: act.abcbirds. org/a/birdability-series See also: birdability.org

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: Kaempfer's Woodpecker by Ralph Antunes; Giant Otter by Jo Crebbin, Shutterstock; Amazon River Dolphins by Coulanges, Shutterstock; Bananal Antbird by Marco Cruz.

Virginia Rose (left), founder of Birdability, with Birdability Coordinator and occupational therapist Freya McGregor (right). Photo by Wayne Jeansonne.

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ON the WIRE USFWS Proposes Delisting “Presumed Extinct” Species, as ABC and Partners Rush to Save Others

SpaceX, FAA Prioritize Space at High Cost to South Texas Wildlife

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he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced a proposal to delist 23 U.S. species from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), due to extinction. The agency acknowledged that for these species, “the protections of the ESA came too late, with most either extinct, functionally extinct, or in steep decline at the timing of listing.”

Public comments on the September 29 delisting proposal will be accepted through December 29. (To comment, visit: bit.ly/3DZvmhy.)

Eleven birds are among the 23 U.S. species presumed extinct, including the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Bachman’s Warbler — both formerly found in the U.S. Southeast — and a subspecies of the Bridled Whiteeye that was found only in Guam.

The other eight bird species were all endemic to Hawai‘i: the Kaua‘i Akialoa, Kaua‘i Nukupu‘u, Kaua‘i ʻŌʻō, Kāmaʻo (Large Kauai Thrush), Maui Ākepa, Maui Nukupu‘u, Kākāwahie (Moloka‘i Creeper), and Po‘ouli.

Invasive species — such as rats, cats, and mosquitoes, which carry lethal diseases such as avian malaria — are the primary drivers of bird extinctions in Hawai‘i.

For remaining Hawaiian forest birds, the threats of avian malaria and avian pox virus are increasing dramatically, with warming temperatures associated with climate change facilitating the mosquitoes’ movement into higher elevations.

These mountainous regions are the

last refuges for species such as the Kiwikiu, an endemic honeycreeper with a population likely numbering fewer than 150. ABC is working urgently with partners to design and implement “Birds, Not Mosquitoes,” a program that will reduce the threat of mosquito-borne diseases and prevent the next wave of bird extinctions in Hawai‘i.

The list of U.S. species presumed extinct also includes several freshwater mussels formerly found on the U.S. mainland, from Missouri to Virginia and Alabama; the Little Mariana Fruit Bat of Guam; a Hawaiian plant, Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis; and two fish, the San Marcos Gambusia of Texas and the Scioto Madtom of Ohio.

These losses provide a warning that ESA protections must be put in place before a species’ population drops to the point of no return. Overall, though, the ESA has been effective: The USFWS notes in its statement that the Act has prevented the extinction of more than 99 percent of listed species. A 2016 ABC report similarly found that most listed bird populations are stable or recovering.

See the USFWS statement: on.doi.gov/3BVA3s7.

Learn more about the “Birds, Not Mosquitoes” program: birdsnotmosquitoes.org.

FROM TOP: Kaua‘i 'Ō'ō (public domain); one of the last photos of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (by Arthur A. Allen); Maui Nukupu‘u (public domain).

hile SpaceX focuses on exploring distant planets, the company’s operations are taking a toll on planet Earth, specifically in Boca Chica, Texas.

There, the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Project and launch site are being built and expanded, even though some of the infrastructure has yet to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). At risk are wildlife habitat and species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including the federally

Threatened Piping Plover and Red Knot, and the Endangered “Northern” Aplomado Falcon.

“Boca Chica is incredibly important to birds,” says EJ Williams, ABC’s Vice President for the Southeast Region.

“The SpaceX facility in Boca Chica is surrounded by federal and state public lands used by hundreds of thousands of individual birds of many different species throughout the year.

It’s an especially vital place for migratory birds that pass through here each spring and fall to rest and refuel.”

SpaceX operations in Boca Chica have changed significantly since the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the site was published by the FAA in 2014. For example, the 2014 EIS made no mention of the natural gas facility now being developed to extract and deliver fuel to the site.

ABC has requested that the FAA develop a new EIS for the SpaceX activities in Boca Chica. The FAA has instead released a draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) — a faster, less comprehensive environmental review. The PEA does not fully address environmental, habitat, or wildlife concerns, nor does it outline alternatives for the public to consider.

Even though the PEA was not finalized at press time, SpaceX has proceeded with construction activities.

The FAA has warned that SpaceX is building “at its own risk.”

Since 2014, rocket debris, fires, and construction activities have damaged federal and state public lands surrounding the Boca Chica site. Over the past two years, increased traffic on State Highway 4, which runs through the area, has taken a heavy toll on wildlife, including many birds.

Piping Plovers winter in the habitat surrounding the Boca Chica SpaceX facility. According to an analysis

by Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, this species’ population in the Boca Chica region decreased by 54 percent over the past three years (2018-2021) since SpaceX set up operations testing and launching rockets — indicating the declining health of the bird’s habitat.

TOP: A SpaceX rocket launch. Photo by Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program.

BOTTOM: Laughing Gulls on the beach close to the SpaceX launch site. Photo by Eli Durst, Texas Monthly.

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This Giving Season, Save a Place for Birds Imagine: A Wood Thrush’s song echoing through the forest. A Golden Eagle gliding across a canyon. Piping Plovers feeding along a beach at sunset.

Birds make places we love extra special through their songs, beauty, and the ways that they connect us to the natural world.

And they need people like you, who care enough to protect and restore the places upon which birds depend.

Birds need places that allow them not only to survive, but to thrive. They need habitat, such as the young Jack Pine forests that keep Kirtland’s Warblers off the endangered species list. They need sustenance, such as Licurí Palm fruit, the primary food source of the Endangered Lear’s Macaw.

This giving season, please Save a Place for Birds — in your giving, in the world, and in your life. Thanks to a dedicated group of supporters, we have a 1:1 match with a goal of raising $1 million by December 31.

— in your giving, in the world, and in your life.

When you support American Bird Conservancy, your gift will be used immediately to: •

•

Will you “save a place” in your giving with your most generous gift to birds today?

•

Protect land for the rarest birds. Your support will help create, expand, and improve conservation areas for Endangered and Critically Endangered bird species, such as the Antioquia Brushfinch, found at just a few sites in Colombia.

Find “Lost Birds.” Locating “lost birds”— those without any record of recent observation — can mean the difference between saving bird species and losing them forever. Your gift helps fund searches, such as an expedition in Venezuela earlier this year that successfully located the Urich’s Tyrannulet, not seen since 2005.

Help migratory birds in places where they need us the most. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota harbor the largest remaining breeding population

of the declining Golden-winged Warbler. Your support helps ABC restore and enhance habitat at key sites across these three states.

•

Protect birds from harmful pesticides. Pesticides impact birds, particularly species found in and around agricultural areas. ABC’s team works to restrict the use of neonicotinoids, the most widely used pesticides, which can both wipe out birds’ insect food sources and poison birds directly.

•

Keep cats indoors. Outdoor cats are responsible for 2.4 billion bird deaths in the United States each year. ABC is the leading organization that stands up for birds on this issue.

Birds need you to act now and save a place for them.

Please join thousands of your fellow bird-lovers.

Donate today to our 1:1 match and help us raise $1 million by December 31. Will you please give your most generous gift today?

Save a Place for Birds!

Return the enclosed envelope or donate today at: abcbirds.org/saveaplace

LEFT: Piping Plover by Ray Hennessy, Shutterstock.

ABOVE: Piping Plover chicks by Matt Filosa, Shutterstock.

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and other partners are working with local communities to attract private investment for bird conservation and habitat protection in this BirdScape, which spans Guatemala’s narrow Caribbean coastline and is an important corridor for more than 100 migratory bird species.

An unfortunate victim of the October oil spill off Huntington Beach, California, has been the “Western” Snowy Plover, which is federally listed as Threatened. The small shorebird had returned to the area as a nesting species over the past few years. At least seven were found oiled.

Neotropical migrants passing through and wintering in Guatemala’s Conservation Coast BirdScape are now being tracked there via three receiver stations run by ABC partner FUNDAECO as part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System.

Researchers will monitor nanotagged birds passing within range of the towers. FUNDAECO, ABC,

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“Turning off unnecessary lights can prevent bird deaths,” says Dr. Christine Sheppard, ABC’s Bird Collisions Campaign Director. “The problem here was a ‘perfect storm’ — high numbers of birds aloft, a storm bringing them close to the built environment, lights preventing them from navigating. And then glass waiting for them first thing in the morning. New York City’s Local Law 15 of 2020 — requiring that all new buildings follow bird-friendly design guidelines and use bird-friendly

Entomologist Douglas W. Tallamy writes: “…any portion of your landscape that is not regularly trammeled by feet and lawnmower wheels will quickly develop a thick O horizon, a soil layer with a high percentage of loose organic matter … perfect for pupating Lepidoptera, as long as you don’t rake away that black gold each year during your spring and fall cleanups.”

ABC Helps to Found “Search for Lost Birds” Partnership The new Search for Lost Birds partnership between ABC, Re:wild, BirdLife International, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology aims to learn more about and seek “lost” bird species — those not seen in a decade or more but that are not considered extinct according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Thrashers, wrens, thrushes, yellowthroats, and others thank you for any lack of diligence.

The list of lost birds includes some well-known species and many poorly known ones, such as Colombia’s Sinu Parakeet and Peru’s Vilcabamba Brushfinch. Conservationists are in desperate need of basic information on where these species live and the threats they face.

The Bad and Good of Drones and Birds In May, a drone illegally flown over a large wetland reserve in southern California crashed, causing several thousand Elegant Terns to abandon their eggs. The incident highlights the need to control drone flights near areas important to birds.

The partnership will use media to raise public awareness of lost birds and to support expeditions to seek some species most in need of conservation attention.

The Benefits of Leaving Things Be Did you lag on yard work this fall?

If so, pat yourself on the back!

Common Yellowthroat on milkweed

by Ray Hennessy, Shutterstock

First Motus Towers for Guatemala

The combination of stormy conditions, lights, buildings, and glass led to the death of hundreds of birds at New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC) complex the night of September 14 and the next morning — during fall migration’s peak.

Around 300 birds were recovered dead or dying, many of them warblers.

ABC, New York City Audubon, and other partners subsequently reached out to WTC complex building managers to help remediate the glass, making the area safer for birds.

Learn more about preventing glass collisions at: abcbirds. org/glass-collisions/ homes-existing-buildings/

But responsibly operated drones can be a boon for birds: In the Falkland Islands, for example, drones brought back images of Black-browed Albatross and Southern Rockhopper Penguin colonies.

When they analyzed the photos using a deep-learning algorithm, researchers found the count was as good as using traditional methods, and likely caused less disturbance than when people land on the two uninhabited islands where the birds breed. The drones also allowed overall coverage, while in-person counts extrapolated totals from birds counted in areas people could access.

part of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. Starting in fall 2020, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, and the Department of the Interior began dredging a nearby channel and depositing sediment. In all, half of the island’s 200 acres were restored and raised, and vegetation was planted.

Smoke Hinders the West’s Migrating Birds

This set the stage for a bumper crop of 6,100 nests in 2021, one-sixth of which belonged to Brown Pelicans.

This species, Louisiana’s state bird, has lost more than half of its colonies in the state.

A U.S. Geological Survey report looking at one of the country’s worst fire seasons (2020) suggests that an increased incidence of widespread fires during fall migration impacts birds, delaying them and forcing them to expend more energy as they try to skirt areas with poor visibility and, presumably, poor air quality. Researchers tracked GPStagged “Tule” Greater White-fronted Geese migrating through the smoky Pacific Northwest, and were able to determine that the birds stopped, altered their route, or did both to avoid heavy smoke.

MBTA Protections Restored, but More Action Needed Brown Pelican and chicks by Julia Rubacha, Shutterstock

“Western” Snowy Plover by Greg Homel, Natural Elements Productions

See: owcn.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ pipeline-p00547-incident

NYC Bird Deaths Highlight Risks to Migrants

Undisturbed wildflower stalks, grasses, leaf litter, and other “dead” vegetation provide resting places for overwintering invertebrates and their eggs — which provide winter, spring, and summer bird food.

Blackpoll Warbler by Greg Lavaty

In addition, dozens of other birds of almost two dozen species turned up either oiled or dead. Although Huntington Beach was most affected, including the bird-rich Talbert Marsh, tar balls washed up on more than 70 miles of beach.

Photo by Melissa Breyer

Spill Impacts Scarce Shorebird

glass — will definitely help going forward.”

Greater White-fronted Geese

by Middleton Evans

BIRDS in BRIEF

Restored Louisiana Island Roars Back to Life Nesting colonial waterbirds have flourished after the restoration of Rabbit Island, which was funded as

In early December 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed a harmful rule change made during the prior Administration, announcing its plan to return full protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

ABC is urging passage of the Migratory Bird Protection Act (MBPA), which would help safeguard the MBTA and its longstanding protections for the future. “The MBPA supports a common-sense permitting framework that will advance best management practices,” says Steve Holmer, ABC’s Vice President for Policy. “It will benefit birds while expanding certainty under the law for industry.”

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HONORING PLACE In this essay, Naamal De Silva, ABC’s Chief Diversity Officer,

by Naamal De Silva

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n the fall of 2009, I was newly married and settling into the house where I still live. One gray morning, I was gardening in our tiny front yard when a pair of American Goldfinches landed on the Purple Coneflowers that line the alley adjacent to our rowhouse. They stayed a while, eating seeds, their flashes of yellow like bursts of sunlight through clouds.

During the next decade, I thought more and more about the people who protect nature, and about the intertwining of our wellbeing with that of birds, trees, and other beings.

For me, this process of shifting and reconnecting involved asking lots of questions, including: How can we get more people to care for nature? How can we do better in caring for birds and each other?

The presence of the goldfinches made me appreciate the garden in new ways and made me wish for more such encounters. Seeing them gave me hope at a time when my work included documenting threats to the survival of far too many species. Back then, I spent a lot of my time on planes and in conference rooms on the other side of the planet. I rarely saw the species and places I worked to protect. I felt disconnected from where I lived.

I believe that many of the answers lie in honoring people, the other beings with whom we share our planet, and the places where we live, work, and play. We can honor people by asking about their needs, their aspirations, their communities, and their histories. We can honor all living beings by respecting their right to exist and their right to thrive. We can honor place by taking the time to recognize and imagine the history and past inhabitants of that place.

My encounter with the goldfinches was one of many tugs on my heart that eventually made me focus my work and research closer to home.

their conservation.

Essentially, this means that we take the time to notice. This noticing has to do with paying more attention to our homes and home towns, to the places where ABC seeks to conserve birds, and to the places to which we travel for birding, adventure, or solace. Over time, through noticing, we can learn more about what we value as individuals and communities, about the needs of birds and other species, and about the work that ABC

ABOVE: An encounter with an American Goldfinch pair on Purple Coneflowers deepened the author's appreciation of the place where she lives. Photo by Danita Delimont, Shutterstock.

TOP: Irises and home by Naamal De Silva.

LEFT: Anacostia River by Naamal De Silva.

shares her perspective on how honoring the places where we live and work can help us to understand each other and how to protect birds and nature.

ABC is committed to weaving justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion into all that the organization does.

Through this work, we intend to ensure that more and more people are able to enjoy birds and work toward

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and partners must prioritize to secure the wellbeing of birds.

Noticing can start at home. It does for me. Unlike the goldfinches, I am not indigenous to the place where I live. Nevertheless, I have lived in this house more than four times as long as in any other home. This city, Washington, D.C., is where I have spent most of my life. I am aware of my deepening roots in this place at the same time that I celebrate being an immigrant, someone with roots in a place far from here.

The place of my birth is home to very different birds and plants and groups of people. And yet, I glimpse fragments of that home in the porch of a house a few blocks away, a smoky smell that wafts through occasionally, a yellow flower that looks exactly like a flower that I loved when I was three and living in Panadura, Sri Lanka. I am not rootless, but I am not from one place.

My house sits on the top of a small hill which is, in turn, part of a lowlying stretch of land between two rivers. The house is made of brick and is beautiful. The walls and the soil in the garden still contain lead that, if ingested, could poison the developing brain of a baby. The house is connected to the one next to it.

The nearby rivers are fed by a series of creeks; one of the largest of these, the Tiber, is now completely buried for its entire length under a train station and houses and streets. In turn,

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The Mighty White Oak:

one river flows into the other, and the waters of both the Anacostia and Potomac empty into the Chesapeake Bay, one of the largest estuaries in the world.

My home was built around 1885 and was likely occupied by middle-class and working-class people, who were likely Irish or African American. I am probably the first Sri Lankan to live in this specific place.

The surrounding neighborhood, once called Swampoodle, provided refuge to emigrants fleeing the Great Famine in Ireland. Malaria and poverty burdened many residents. Goats and cows lived in some of the alleys.

Over time, Greek, Italian, and more African American people moved to the neighborhood. Today, this neighborhood is ethnically diverse, but the percentages are changing; the residents are increasingly wealthy.

As with most places and histories, beauty is interwoven with ugliness, pain with joy.

If we look back further than 200 years, written words about this place are few. Nevertheless, we know that

Branching Out for Wildlife

Ecosystems function as a sum of their parts. Some parts, however, pull extra weight. Take the Eastern White Oak, an iconic tree found in 36 states. Known not only as one of the most important commercial trees — prized for furniture, flooring, and many other uses — this long-lived species plays out-sized roles in supporting birds and other wildlife. In the East, it’s one of the most important species that native-plant the area where I live was swampy and forested. The Piscataway and Nacotchtank (or Anacostan) people lived nearby and passed through on their way to trade centers, to quarries near one of the creeks, or to fishing grounds along the rivers. The quarries remain, and there are unmarked burial grounds within the city. There may have been others here before them. The skies, forests, and marshes were full of wildlife, including nowextinct Passenger Pigeons and Carolina Parakeets, as well as Elk and Red Wolves. The rivers and creeks were free of pollution and deeper, teeming with fish like American Shad. Wild Rice is native to these rivers. I am

As with most places and histories, beauty is interwoven with ugliness, pain with joy.

Purple Coneflowers by Elena Elisseeva, Shutterstock

certain that many of these beings did not choose to leave, did not choose that their descendants would no longer occupy this place.

What might this small piece of land look like in another 500 years? Who might live here? Will there be wild places nearby? How can we ensure more fairness and respect in the future than in the past? How can we help each other to see connections TOP LEFT: Great Falls by Naamal De Silva.

RIGHT: Snowy scene at home by Naamal De Silva.

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between the past and the future, and to think about both collectively?

gardeners can put in the soil, if they have the space.

I have worked with ABC for two years, and have served as the organization’s Chief Diversity Officer for a few months. As I look to the future, toward an inclusive approach to bird conservation, I want us to remain rooted in place. When we take the time to notice, we begin to care more deeply about the place and its history, and we become more able to be good stewards of the land and water. When we take the time to honor and learn from the complicated histories of the places where we live and work, we can look toward a future that incorporates a diversity of perspectives and approaches. It is from this diversity that we will collectively prevent bird extinctions, adapt to our changing climate, and address other global challenges.

Nature’s Best Hope, “particularly when birds are rearing their young.” Tallamy and his colleague Kimberley

I hope that you, our readers, take the time to reflect on and examine the history of your home places, the places where you go birding, where you walk your dogs, visit your parents, or play with your children or grandchildren. Consider honoring place and making space for birds in ways that resonate with you.

“Caterpillars are the mainstay of most bird diets in North America,” writes Douglas W. Tallamy in his book Shropshire documented that across the U.S., oaks host the greatest caterpillar diversity: At least 934 caterpillar species were supported by oaks, 557 of these in the Mid-Atlantic region, with many of these on the Eastern White Oak. A single large tree can host thousands of individual caterpillars.

Able to live over 500 years and reach up to 180 feet tall, this tree is a leafy paradise for much more than caterpillars. Acorns carry the oak’s seeds served up in a nutritious vessel, and every four to ten years, the trees drop an extra-heavy crop. On the next two pages, you will see just a few of the species that benefit from this bounty.

Holes and crevices of various sizes provide breeding and shelter sites for wildlife, including cavity-nesting birds such as owls, woodpeckers, chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds, Great Crested Flycatchers, and Tufted Titmice, along with flying squirrels, bats, and other mammals. Dropped limbs and fallen trunks decompose with the help of microbes, fungi, and invertebrates, which, in turn, attract animals that feed upon them, including other invertebrates, salamanders, skinks, and snakes.

Turn the page to see a few of the ways an oak can be an ark.

Naamal De Silva is ABC’s Chief Diversity Officer.

Eastern White Oak seedling by jurgal, Shutterstock.

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TREE OF LIFE The Eastern White Oak’s leaves feed a bounty of caterpillars (see 3, 4, and 5) and other insects that in turn feed many birds and their young. Acorns, plucked from branches or picked from the ground, nourish birds and mammals. In addition, a mighty oak like this one provides many cavities and crevices perfect for nesting and roosting. See if you can find all 15 species lurking in and around this leafy ark.

Shown here (left to right): 1

1

5

Red-bellied Woodpecker

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Southern Flying Squirrel

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Black Bear

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Eastern Screech-Owl

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Cankerworm (inchworm)

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Rose-breasted Grosbeak

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Double-lined Prominent

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Common True Katydid

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Smaller Parasa

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Scarlet Tanager

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Blue Jay

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Wild Turkey

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Great Crested Flycatcher

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Wood Duck

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Eastern Fox Squirrel

Artwork by Chris Vest

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Chasing “Paper” Kites

by Howard Youth

Q

uaint shops, historic buildings, and stately Live Oaks beckon tourists to the small coastal city of Georgetown, South Carolina. But those cruising the south edge of town get quite a different view, suddenly shrinking before a steaming colossus of cement and steel.

Since its machinery powered up in 1937, International Paper’s Georgetown Mill has fueled the region’s economy. During World War II, it churned out C-Ration boxes that were packed and loaded onto ships bound for troops in Europe and the Pacific. Today, the plant employs more than 650 people and makes envelope and printer paper, card

stock, and fluff pulp used in diapers, toilet paper, and personal products.

A nearby container plant produces the cardboard delivery boxes that appear regularly on many of our front doorsteps.

A giant paper company and its mill might seem antithetical to the cause of bird conservation. Yet today, International Paper (IP) plays a growing role in this arena.

It belongs to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the wood it buys from landowners and forestry companies must meet sustainable criteria that include steps to conserve birds and

LEFT: Swallow-tailed Kites congregate at postbreeding roosts, particularly in Florida, where researchers count them to get an idea of the species' U.S. population. Photo by Lagunatic Photo, Shutterstock.

TOP: A Georgetown street, with International Paper's mill in the background. Photo by Joseph Sohm, Shutterstock.

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Swallow-tailed Kite by Greg Homel, Natural Elements Productions.

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“The flagship bird for the Georgetown mill and 50 miles around it is the Swallow-tailed Kite.“

of private landowners. “The majority of the South’s forest land is privately owned by individuals and families — millions of acres,” points out Williams.

As a large, well-respected business, IP can influence how its private partners think about and manage their acreage. “IP’s goal is to buy 100 percent of their wood from forests that are verified as sustainably managed,” Williams says. “This raises the bar for private individuals who want to sell to IP, including those who see forest management on strictly economic terms.”

other wildlife. ABC works with IP on these efforts. That’s how, one morning this past July, I wound up standing on private forest land a short drive from the mill. There, I met my colleague EJ Williams, ABC’s Vice President for the Southeast Region, who advises IP on where the best conservation opportunities lie for the company and its SFI partners.

“Before this was a tourist town, it was a mill town,” she tells me. The acreage we visit sits center-stage in the growing partnership between IP, its SFI partners, and ABC. Managed with purpose, it supports a far wider range of wildlife than would many other land uses. One beneficiary of this partnership is the iconic creature we came to see — a species that in their field guide Hawks in Flight, bird experts Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton call “the most graceful flier of any North American raptor” and, by some accounts, “the continent’s most beautiful bird.”

We’ve parked on a muddy forest track and are scoping a recently harvested area dotted with young

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pines, Sweetgum saplings, and wildflowers and backed by an army-green wall of Baldcypress and Loblolly Pine. Williams says a kite pair recently finished nesting here for the year. It’s 9 o’clock and sunny.

That means rising, invisible air columns, or thermals, likely beckon raptors to soar.

“There you are,” says Williams, nodding up at three sleek, white birds suddenly wheeling overhead on black-edged wings, their forked tails swiveling. “Just look at the way they use that tail as a rudder. They’re right near the first nest site. That one with the short tail is this year’s bird.”

Of Birds and Business The Swallow-tailed Kite once nested in 21 U.S. states as far north as Minnesota. The species dramatically declined from the late 1800s into the 1900s — a time of widespread, uncontrolled habitat loss in the East.

Other contributing factors may have been shooting and egg-collecting, since Swallow-tailed Kite eggs fetched exceptionally high prices

among competitive Victorian-era hobbyists. Today, the vast majority of U.S. Swallow-tailed Kites nest in just six southeastern states, including South Carolina, where Williams and other conservationists hope to secure their future.

“The flagship bird for the Georgetown mill and 50 miles around it is the Swallow-tailed Kite,” Williams says as we watch the circling birds.

“Customers want to know their products come from well-managed forests,” she says, “and birds like the kite can tell you a lot about whether those forests are being managed sustainably.”

Although many people think IP owns expansive forests, it doesn’t.

Instead, to get the fiber needed for numerous household staples, the company relies upon large forestry companies that partner with SFI and, especially in the South, thousands

When their land is managed sustainably, private landowners not only harvest trees, which go into valuable products, but also manage and re-plant their forests for longterm benefits to local economies, water quality, carbon sequestration, and wildlife.

“Most of the landowners we work with are great stewards of the land,” Williams says, “and the kites give us a chance to enhance habitat conditions for this species and a bunch of other wildlife.” She keeps an eye out for a key element to kite nesting success: tall, open-crowned

“but in this case, the area went from routine management to providing a place for kites to nest, now and in the future, in less than four hours!”

Baldcypress and pine, and sometimes oak or Sweetgum, that rise above surrounding vegetation, especially those growing along water courses.

Managing wide, wooded streamside buffers as part of the working landscape benefits not only nesting kites, but also water quality, aquatic life, and habitat for declining bird species including the Kentucky Warbler.

Raptors by Day, Hunted by Night

Recent happenings have further convinced Williams of the growing synergy between forest management and conservation. Last spring, she found perfect kite habitat in the nearby Carver’s Bay area. She discussed the importance of the area to the Georgetown kites with Jeremy Poirier, IP’s Global Fiber Projects Sustainability Manager. Then, she worked with IP to incorporate kite habitat conservation measures directly into a planned harvest in the area.

Soon after, IP contacted the landowner, who was willing to retain an important area with towering trees that make ideal nest sites, and to delay harvest of the surrounding pine stand until after the nesting season.

“Conservation can sometimes be a slow process,” Williams reflects,

Masterful aerialists, Swallow-tailed Kites snatch dragonflies, cicadas, June beetles, and other large insects from the air. They also set their sights on trees and shrubs, plucking from the foliage and branches treefrogs, lizards, snakes, and some nestling songbirds — including, on occasion, gnatcatcher chicks in their nests. This larger prey is most often brought back to the nest for the young, as are entire paper wasp nests full of protein-rich larvae.

After the circling kites drift out of sight, we get into Williams’ cardinalred SUV. She wants to show me a few more nest sites. “Swallow-tailed Kites are not really birds of dense forests.

They take advantage of a mosaic of conditions,” she tells me while navigating ruts in the pale-yellow mud.

We swish out of the sunlight of a recently cleared forest, into a shady forest patch, then into sun again, stopping by a group of tall Loblolly

Masterful aerialists, Swallow-tailed Kites snatch dragonflies, cicadas, June beetles, and other large insects from the air.

TOP: A Swallow-tailed Kite carrying nesting material. Photo by Betty Rizzotti.

RIGHT: Swallow-tailed Kite feeding on June beetles. Photo by Peg Gallagher.

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Pines. A stick nest sits in the crown of one tree, a tuft of Spanish Moss dangling off one side. (See p. 26.)

Williams explains that the kites often nest in trees 60 to 70 years old that reach 80 to 90 feet tall. Many of the pine stands in the area, however, are harvested every 20 to 25 years, underscoring the importance of conserving older kite-nest trees,

especially since pairs often return to the same place year after year.

From their nests, the kites get a masterful view of their surroundings … during the day. At night, though, Great Horned Owls will target the treetop kites as they sleep, dragging off adults and nestlings. Sometimes they return to a nest night after night until no birds are left. In the end, there are risks to top-end living.

Tracking Kites Williams works with two scientists who also know a thing or two about kites. In fact, Ken Meyer and Gina Kent of the Gainesville, Florida-based Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) have handled, tagged, and tracked more than 480 Swallowtailed Kites — far more than anyone else on the planet. Their decades of painstaking research revealed many of the life-history details now guiding conservation of the species, including a clear picture of the kite’s U.S. nesting requirements and status, and the pathways and perils faced as these birds migrate.

Before tracking technology, most ornithologists believed that U.S.nesting Swallow-tailed Kites only migrated over land, tracing the Gulf Coast shore, and that they wintered in northern South America. “In 1996, Microwave Telemetry, a company in Maryland, produced a remotely tracked satellite transmitter light enough to fit the Swallow-tailed Kite,” says Meyer. “We tagged six kites that year in Big Cypress Swamp [in Florida]. That was the beginning of the golden era of bird tracking. That’s how I discovered where Swallowtailed Kites go for the winter and how they get there. It’s far away.”

Tracking records reveal that each fall, an estimated 70 percent of the species’ U.S. population crosses the Gulf of Mexico from Florida, passing over 450 to 600 miles of open water to the Yucatán Peninsula. There, as revealed from tracking studies by ARCI's collaborator Jennifer Coulson at the Orleans Audubon Society, the birds join coast-hugging kites from A dynamic trio working to track and conserve Swallow-tailed Kites: ARCI's Gina Kent (top), ABC's EJ Williams (bottom left), and ARCI's Ken Meyer (bottom right). All are licensed to handle wild birds. Photos by Gina Kent.

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Fall Migration of the Swallow-tailed Kite

An estimated 70 percent of the U.S. population migrates through Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico.

Central America has a breeding population that migrates as well.

Last spring, Williams and the ARCI scientists set out to find, tag, and start tracking the movements of kites nesting in these Georgetown forests.

Once they located nests during roadside surveys, the next step was to determine who owned the land so they could get permission to enter and trap the birds. That assistance and information came from local foresters at White Oak Forest Management.

It turned out the kites were nesting

As the kites traveled this past fall, the transmitters collected location data that was downloaded once a day to cellphone towers within reach of their signals. But what happens when these migrants pass through remote areas? “When they are out of range,” says Meyer, “we don’t get data. But when they get back within range, the transmitter dumps all that GPS data. We just have to be patient as we wait.”

The team looks forward to the kites’ spring return and to analyzing their northbound routes. They plan to expand this work over the next three years to include more nesting kites, particularly in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana.

Bustling Roosts, Rising Numbers

South America has resident Swallow-tailed Kite populations, which are augmented during migration and on wintering grounds by migratory kites.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, plus the few that nest in East Texas, wending their way over land through Central America to wintering grounds in southern Brazil and Bolivia — 5,000 or more miles away.

grams, or less than 3 percent of an adult’s weight.

on land owned by two long-term ABC partners, Resource Management Service and Forestry Investment Associates.

Using a large mist net backed by a perched, trained Great Horned Owl “irresistible” to nest-defending kites, the team quickly and safely trapped and attached GPS-tracking devices to three kites this past June on the forest lands we now visit. After carefully removing the birds from the net, they then fit a harness on each one that holds a GPS-equipped, solar-powered transmitter that connects with cellphone networks.

Three inches long and one inch wide, each device weighs just a few

Despite spiking human population growth and development in the Southeast in recent decades, the Swallow-tailed Kite population seems to be on the rise. Since 2006, Meyer and Kent have annually surveyed, by plane, the largest-known post-breeding roosts of these birds in Florida, which number from 100 or fewer to several thousand birds each. “These large roosts provide a great opportunity for population monitoring, a gift we don’t have for most species,” says Meyer.

“What we’re seeing in the last six or seven years, since about 2015,” he continues, “is a very slow but steady increase in our trend index for the U.S. breeding population, which now stands at just over 11,000 at the peak of the largest roosts. This translates into an estimate of at least 15,000 to 25,000 Swallow-tailed Kites in the U.S. breeding population.”

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Every nesting season, Swallowtailed Kites straddle a fine line between cleanliness and calamity.

Unlike most raptors, young Swallowtails drop waste in the nest, not over the edge. “It gets pretty messy up there,” says Ken Meyer, Executive Director at Avian Research and Conservation Institute. “Parents bring soft nest materials, and they are continually putting new layers down, covering waste in the nest.”

They continue this throughout the nesting cycle, frequently returning with Spanish Moss, an epiphyte that acts as a cushion between the young, the nest’s stick structure, and the waste. Paper wasp nests also prove handy for this purpose, after the adult kites pull off the chambers’ caps, pluck out the larvae, and feed them to their nestlings.

Meyer and his colleagues have found that these “cover-up” materials really stack up. In fact, after weighing nest contents, they found that sticks make up only about half the weight of a Swallow-tailed Kite nest; epiphytes constitute the rest.

“This makes it cleaner,” says Meyer, “but all that material fills up the concave cup of the nest and makes it flat or convex.” That can be a problem, since one of the leading causes of nest failure in this species is young toppling from nests. “They’re getting bigger as their nest is getting smaller, more fragile, and filled — all probably lending to getting them blown out of the nest,” Meyer says. So, at least in this one natural example, sometimes there could be a danger in too much house-keeping.

— Howard Youth

“All in all, this managed forest landscape works for birds far better than intensive agriculture or housing,” says Williams, as we bump our way back to the first nest site, where I’d left my car. Our short drive demonstrates her point perfectly: We rumble past flashy Red-headed Woodpeckers, drab immature Orchard Orioles, a Wild Turkey hen with six gangly poults in tow, and bluebirds. It’s late in the nesting season, so we don’t hear the Painted and Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, and Yellow-breasted Chats, but Williams assures me she heard them singing in the brush all spring long.

“The clearings here are packed with birds,” she adds, skirting a pothole, “and, of course, they can become kite food, too.”

Howard Youth is ABC’s Senior Writer/Editor.

LEFT: Epiphytes, placed by adults to separate chicks from their waste and the nest structure, often account for half the weight of Swallowtailed Kite nests. Photo by Michael Wolf, Florida Nature Photography.

SPLIT DECISIONS

Hazardous Hygiene

Part of this increase, Meyer hypothesizes, may be due to the birds’ ability to nest in human-inhabited areas that maintain enough tree cover and provide a banquet of treefrogs, lizards, dragonflies, and other food — yet lack habitat components attractive to the birds’ owl nemesis.

However, working forests provide the most expansive patchworks of open areas and forest blocks and are likely key to the birds’ present and future.

The Taxonomic Revolution and How It Affects Conservation

by David Wiedenfeld

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n recent years, it has come as a surprise to me, a long-time birder and ornithologist, to suddenly discover that the Summer Tanagers in my neighborhood are no longer tanagers at all: They’re grosbeaks! And that blackbirds and orioles are no longer almost at the end of the bird book; they’ve marched up before the wood-warblers!

One of the new species split from the Rufous Antpitta. Photo by Greg Homel, Natural Elements Productions.

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SPLIT DECISIONS

The Taxonomic Revolution and How It Affects Conservation

although we did have some ability to compare vocalizations. Our access to DNA and genetic information was very limited. That has changed. Today, the laboratory systems and equipment needed for obtaining and analyzing DNA data are more readily available and relatively inexpensive, and the computing power and databases needed to make comparisons are ubiquitous.

Ornithology has seen a revolution in the last few decades, with systematics — the study of the relationships between bird species and families — reordered in ways that might not seem intuitive to those not steeped in bird science. Why, for example, were the falcons moved away from hawks and eagles, to right next to the parrots, and the parrots to just before the songbirds? Those are just two changes we see in our North American field guides. Worldwide, the taxonomy — naming and ordering — of birds, their families, and orders has undergone some dramatic changes.

But wait, there’s more! There have also been many lower-level changes in bird species and their names. This shows up mainly in splitting of species into two or more species. A particularly dramatic example is the Rufous Antpitta, an enormously cute little bird of Andean cloud forests that was shattered into 12 species. Less frequently, species changes involve lumping two into one.

What’s causing all of these changes, and what does it mean to us?

ABOVE: This Equatorial Antpitta (formerly Rufous Antpitta) was photographed in Ecuador. Photo

by Milan Zygmunt, Shutterstock.

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The major reason for most of what we’re seeing now is the dramatic improvement in scientists’ ability to study and analyze bird DNA and genetics. Before the 1980s, ornithologists were mainly restricted to looking at the plumage and body and bones of a bird,

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Although this scientific laboratory work has given us tremendous insight, birders shouldn’t sell themselves short on what their contributions have been to our knowledge of avian life. Another important reason for the changes we’re seeing in bird classification is that we now have a lot more basic information about birds than before.

Research used to be mainly restricted to museum specimens, which, outside the U.S. or Europe, were obtained from relatively few places. There were far fewer eyes on the ground, and most species’ life histories were poorly known. Nowadays, we have many more birders and ornithologists living in and traveling to remote locations around the world. They study and send back eBird and other database records, confirming photographs, habitat notes, and recordings.

Observations of many rare birds, or ones once thought rare because their habitat was so remote, have taught us much more about them, and their differences and similarities.

This knowledge has allowed ornithologists to identify species groups and places that need more investigation. For example, once it’s known that a species like the now-former Rufous Antpitta shows a lot of variation in song, ornithologists can use genetic tools to evaluate whether or not that variation in vocalizations indicates different species.

So, hold on to your life list and keep your eyes peeled because this explosion of bird information, combined with DNA evidence, not only means that you have to keep up to date with recent splits: In the not-sodistant future, there may be many — many

— species split into more than one new species. One analysis has shown that if the current rate of species-splitting continues, we may find ourselves with as many as 18,000 bird species in the world — almost twice as many as now.

Changes in the sequence or grouping of bird families and orders is interesting from a scientific point of view, but these changes don’t have much impact on bird conservation. The splitting and resulting jump in the number of species, however, make a big difference.

Most of us who work in conservation rely on species lists, because species are usually our “operational units,” the groups that we focus on. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, for example, evaluates the level of threat to species, assigning them to categories such as “Endangered” or “Least Concern,” among others. Because of this, it can be very important if a species is lumped or split. A “new” species split off from a common one, for example, can be very rare, and therefore immediately recognized as threatened. The widespread Gray-cheeked Thrush is not a threatened species, but when the Bicknell’s Thrush was split from it, this new species, once just considered a separate subspecies of the other, was immediately recognized as Vulnerable on the Red List.

This happens fairly often when species are split because what was once a larger population becomes two or more smaller ones, and population size is an important criterion for determining whether something is threatened or not. Most of the 12 species of the former Rufous Antpitta have small ranges, each representing only a small part of the original range, and several of them will likely garner threatened status, once assessed. (The split is very recent, and the new conservation status assessment hasn’t been completed.)

Although some conservation efforts take groups smaller than species into account, currently, most conservation is directed toward species. (An exception is the U.S.

Endangered Species Act, which recognizes subspecies and even Distinct Population Segments.) It is much easier to attract attention to the plight of a threatened species than it would be if that same population were an unrecognized subgroup. Plus, it’s much easier to raise funds and bring legal or regulatory resources to bear for a species’ conservation.

The Cassia Crossbill, a species split from the Red Crossbill, is endemic to Idaho. Photo by Doug Kieser.

This, then, is why the revolution in bird taxonomy makes a difference to conservation.

It means that we now have more species to which we must direct our conservation efforts, but that we can also attract public and government attention to these species. Having many more species may make it seem that the task is more daunting, but the goal was always the same — to conserve all birds — and now it’s just in clearer focus.

It’s exciting to live in a time when new knowledge about birds is advancing so rapidly. It can be discombobulating, too: Like when you come upon the Cassia Crossbill in your new bird book and think, “What is that?” Or when you fumble through your field guide and find that cormorants no longer reside toward the front of the book (they now come way after the ducks).

These changes, though, reflect improving knowledge about birds. And science is about continually working to make things better, clearer. As just discussed, these changes also help us hone our strategies to conserve birds for future generations. So, in a number of ways, the taxonomy revolution keeps us on our toes!

David Wiedenfeld is ABC’s Senior Conservation Scientist.

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ABC BIRDING

Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri

Current River Hills

By Jane Fitzgerald, ABC Vice President and Central Hardwoods Joint Venture Coordinator Lay of the Land: This is the chance to visit a restored open woodland system that is dominated or codominated by Shortleaf Pine, a species and ecosystem once widespread in the Missouri Ozarks. The pines, some very large and long-lived, are widely spaced, with an understory of shrubs, native grasses, and wildflowers. In the past, this park-like spacing of trees and diverse understory of plantlife resulted from frequent fires, set both by lightning and by Native Americans, who used fire to maintain areas for hunting and grazing. After European colonization, the Shortleaf Pine woodlands were

The star of the show is the repatriated Brown-headed Nuthatch, a species that disappeared from Missouri in the early 20th century and was reintroduced as a result of landscape-scale habitat restoration efforts.

largely decimated by widespread logging, free-range grazing, and subsequent suppression of the fires critical to their persistence. They re-grew mostly as closed-canopy oak forests, which now cover large areas of this national forest. Some species closely tied to the open-pine structure, including the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Brown-headed Nuthatch, disappeared from the region.

Focal Birds: The star of the show is the repatriated Brown-headed TOP: Restoration work has returned the Shortleaf Pine to prominence in a portion of its once-vast range. Photo by Sarah Kendrick.

Nuthatch, a species that disappeared from Missouri in the early 20th century and was reintroduced as a result of the landscape-scale habitat restoration efforts described below. All told, 102 birds were translocated from the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and released in the Mark Twain National Forest in 2020 and 2021, the result of a collaborative effort between various partners, including the U.S. Forest Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Central Hardwoods Joint Venture (CHJV) (of which ABC is a part), and Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida.

Listen for the birds’ unique call, which sounds like a squeaky dog toy

and is most easily detected around March, just prior to breeding season.

It was recently confirmed that the birds are indeed nesting in the restored habitat.

Other species of conservation concern found in the same habitat and nearby include the Prairie Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, and other shrub-nesting species, along with the Red-headed Woodpecker, Summer Tanager, and Eastern Wood-Pewee, among others.

Sizable populations of the Eastern Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will’swidow are present as well, with research showing they, too, benefit

from the habitat restoration work.

Winter visitors include the Yellowbellied Sapsucker, Fox Sparrow, and Hermit Thrush.

Other Wildlife: Black Bear, Bobcat, Gray Fox, Coyote, Nine-banded Armadillo, White-tailed Deer, several bat species, and other mammals occur in the area. Insects associated with these woodlands include the Giant Swallowtail butterfly, the endemic Ozark Woodland Swallowtail, and the Green-legged Clockwise from top left: Blue-winged Warbler by Frode Jacobsen; Red-headed Woodpecker by Danita Delimont, Shutterstock; White-eyed Vireo

by Paul St. Clair, Shutterstock; Brown-headed Nuthatch by Frode Jacobsen.

LEFT: Brown-headed Nuthatch by Matt Cuda, Shutterstock.

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Directions: The nuthatch reintroduction area is located off Forest Road 3169 (or Pineknot Road), in a very rural region within Mark Twain National Forest. It is one location in a four-stop self-guiding “Current River Pinery Tour,” linked by signs and accompanying podcasts that explain the ecology, history, and societal benefits of the work done in the area. Scroll to the bottom of the following webpage to see a map and details on this self-guided driving tour: oakfirescience.com/ current-river-pinery-self-guided-tour/.

Grasshopper. A wide array of native woodland plants can be found, including Black Huckleberry, blazing stars (Liatris aspera and L. squarrosa), Buffalo Clover, Cream White Indigo, Finger Coreopsis, Royal Catchfly, Tick Trefoil, and Wild Quinine.

When to Visit: The Brown-headed Nuthatch, as well as the Red-headed and five other woodpecker species, are present year-round. Migratory birds are typically in the area from late April until late summer/early fall. Insect repellent is recommended during the warmer months, when ticks and chiggers are plentiful.

Check the Missouri Department of Conservation’s website (mdc. mo.gov/hunting-trapping/seasons) to be aware of hunting seasons in the area. Also, it’s a good idea to check the weather before heading on your trip, especially in winter, when ice storms can make travel treacherous.

Conservation Activities: In 2009, an opportunity to restore areas of this habitat emerged, when significant federal funding for woodland restoration was made available through passage of Title IV of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, and the establishment of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program. As the Coordinator of the CHJV, I helped to identify a partnership of groups doing restoration work in the vicinity that enlarges the restoration footprint in and around the Mark Twain project area. The national forest was awarded funding for ten years, beginning in 2012, to restore pine and pine-oak woodlands.

The project focuses on two large landscapes in southeastern Missouri where Shortleaf Pine once covered vast acreage. Sixty-thousand acres are now considered functionally restored

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Forest Road 3169 (on GPS maps also called Pineknot Road). In less than a quarter of a mile, an interpretive sign on the left marks the start of the pinery tour. This is also the reintroduction site. The nuthatches are found from this area back to both sides of Highway J. By reporting your nuthatch sightings to ebird.org, you can contribute to what’s known of the “new” birds’ distribution in the area.

The project focuses on two landscapes in southeastern Missouri where Shortleaf Pine once covered vast acreage. Sixty-thousand acres are now considered functionally restored from an ecological perspective.

The region is remote, with few services available. It is recommended that you pack water and food; fill your car’s tank with gas; and charge your cellphone before starting your journey. Note that the roads within the national forest are often twisting and narrow, and that they are regularly traversed by logging trucks.

On the map just referenced, the nuthatch area is marked as the leftmost “Overview” location.

To reach the site from Winona, Missouri, take U.S. Route 60 east for 11 miles to Fremont. As you pass this very small town, turn right and head south on Highway J. After 5 miles, turn right on the unpaved

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Painstaking habitat restoration paved the way for 102 Arkansas nuthatches to be reintroduced to Missouri, where they once again nest. Photo by Sarah Kendrick.

Releasing a translocated Brown-headed Nuthatch in its new Missouri home. Photo by Sarah Kendrick.

H

WINONA

Nightjars like this Eastern Whip-poor-will thrive in restored Shortleaf Pine habitats. Photo by Frode Jacobsen.

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The Gray Fox is present throughout the national forest, but is unlikely to be seen during the day.

Photo by Holly Kuchera, Shutterstock.

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RIGHT: Jason Garret, wildlife biologist at the Ouachita National Forest, unfurling a mist net at the nuthatch capture site in Arkansas. Photo by Sarah Kendrick.

VAN BUREN

MARK TWAIN NATIONAL FOREST

The Cream White Indigo is among the many wildflowers that flourish beneath the widely spaced pines. Photo by Christopher David Benda.

from an ecological perspective, after having been thinned and burned at least twice, which stimulates the growth of groundcover and suppresses oak sprouting. An additional 94,000 acres have had at least one prescribed burn. Mark Twain National Forest’s managers

Learn more about the Central Hardwoods Joint Venture and its work at: chjv.org/

FREMONT

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J

are seeking a five-year extension that would fund 15,000 more acres of thinning and another 80,000 acres of prescribed fire, as well as songbird surveys, nightjar research, and potentially more Brown-headed Nuthatch releases.

Forest Road 3169 (Pine Knot Road) J

Nuthatch reintroduction site

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For the last 21 years, Constantino (“Tino”) Aucca Chutas has been President of Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN), ABC’s main Peruvian partner. There, he oversees a staff of almost 50 workers and more than 15 contractors and consultants. ECOAN manages 16 reserves in nine regions of the country, restoring habitat and conserving a bounty of wildlife. Since 2018, Aucca has also been President of Acción Andina, a group working to protect Andes highland forests in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

This is his story, in his own words: I was born in Cusco, I live in Cusco, and I want to die in Cusco. This is where I am going to help the most. This is where I want to be.

Save a Place for Birds for

Future Generations

In 1989, while I was a biology student at the University of Cusco, a Danish ornithologist named Dr. Jon Fjeldså arrived to Peru. He was working on Birds of the High Andes, and looking for a field assistant who would travel with him to some dangerous areas where there was still guerilla activity.

We traveled together for nearly two months to finish that book. I thought: “If I survive this trip, this is going to start a new story.”

Dr. Fjeldså was a great mentor. He told me: “Tino, this forest and those birds need you. You must protect them.” This was the big responsibility I received on that day in 1989. All of my professional life I have focused on doing conservation on the ground.

At conferences, others said “the main threat is humans.” My question was: “If you know that, why don’t you work with humans?” When ECOAN started, we were convinced that we would only succeed by working with local communities on large-scale programs. For us, it was good luck to find ABC, an NGO who believes in that.

ROYAL CINCLODES (Critically Endangered)

I was part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, in 2014. Afterward, not seeing any concrete results, I got back to my colleagues and said: We must send a message to the world.

We decided to plant more than 57,000 Polylepis tree seedlings with the local community in a single day. It’s now an annual event called Queuña Raymi. You can see thousands of people running up highlands carrying the seedlings, no matter the distance, difficulty, or weather. All to help watersheds and mountains.

When you include American Bird Conservancy in your estate plans, you will ensure birds have a place for breeding, migration, and wintering for years to come. A place where they can thrive. A place so future generations will be able to marvel at their beauty and splendor.

Save a place in your estate. Save a place for birds.

If you are interested in more information on how to save a place for birds through a legacy gift, or if you have already remembered ABC in your will, or as a beneficiary of a trust, IRA, or insurance plan, please contact Jack Morrison, ABC Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving at jmorrison@abcbirds.org or 540-253-5780.

For more information: bit.ly/vilcanota and bit.ly/queuna-raymi

Award-winning watercolor painter Beatriz Benavente lives in Spain, where she specializes in scientific and bird illustration. You can follow her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wildstories.art

ABOVE: Sandhill Cranes by Martha Marks, Shutterstock.

P.O. Box 249 The Plains, VA 20198 abcbirds.org 540-253-5780 • 888-247-3624

The nonmigratory Brown-headed Nuthatch found its way back to Missouri, with a lot of help from its friends (see p. 30). Photo by Frode Jacobsen.