Migratory Birds

During summer 2017, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) initiated a collaborative research study focused on understanding if water-level management of wetlands at refuges can influence mercury bioaccumulation in wetland-dependent migratory birds. Birds are susceptible to the effects of mercury and can serve as indicators of contamination in ecosystems. We examined mercury...

The recent expansion of unconventional oil and gas development in the Williston Basin of North America has raised concerns among managers about potential negative effects of such development on grassland birds. Others, however, have argued that agricultural land use in the region has had a much larger impact and that energy development may be a comparatively small stressor for grassland birds...

The only self-sustaining population of endangered whooping cranes nests within and near Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada, migrates through the Great Plains, and winters primarily along the Texas Gulf Coast. Our objectives of this collaborative project are to address the entire annual life cycle of this species by advancing knowledge of breeding, wintering, and migration ecology, including...

Least terns and piping plovers are the subject of numerous population monitoring efforts. Population monitoring requires periodic visits to nesting areas to count and assess breeding status of the birds. At higher visit frequencies, detection of nests and chicks improves as does ability to determine outcomes of nesting attempts, resulting in more complete and accurate productivity information. But...

The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP) partnered with Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) to study demographics of least terns and piping plovers at the Central Platte River in Nebraska. Due to water management and other alterations, riverine habitat for least terns and piping plovers has become degraded. Least terns and piping plovers, however, have begun breeding...

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is helping to improve the monitoring of federally listed least terns and piping plovers by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at John Martin Reservoir in Southeastern Colorado. NPWRC is providing information to the USACE aimed to improve their habitat management and productivity monitoring. NPWRC is also providing the capability to mark adults and...

NPWRC is leading a multi-agency study to understand metapopulation dynamics of piping plovers in the Northern Great Plains. Piping plovers are a federally listed species that nests on riverine sandbars and shorelines of wetlands and reservoirs. These habitats are dynamic in response to climate and water-management regimes of the Missouri River. The US Army Corps of Engineers manages the Missouri...

The largest recorded flood event on the Missouri River occurred during 2011. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center recently concluded a study that evaluated effects of that flood on least tern and piping plover breeding populations. These federally-listed species nest on riverine sandbars and reservoir shorelines. Since construction of the dams on the Missouri River there have been few floods...

The Rainwater Basin Wetland Complex is a mid-latitude focal point of spring migration for numerous species of birds in the Great Plains. The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture (RWBJV) and partners desire geospatial models to identify characteristics of wetland complexes and understand local and landscape level factors that influence habitat selection of migrating waterfowl. To support this effort, we...

The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) provides much essential information for assessing bird populations, but it is unknown how inherent assumptions of the BBS apply to grassland birds in the Northern Plains. Understanding the effects of these assumptions on our understanding of grassland bird populations is essential given widespread declines of grassland birds as well as recent and...

Midcontinent sandhill cranes occupy a large geographic area of central and western North America and northeastern Asia during breeding, winter, and migration. They are a species representing a unique convergence of multiple user groups with an interest in the continued health of this population. Tens of thousands of people view cranes during spring staging at the Platte River Valley in Nebraska...

Interest in the immune systems of wild birds has increased as public health authorities have recognized that many emerging infectious diseases of wildlife can be transmitted to humans (i.e., zoonoses). Eco-immunology is an emerging field that characterizes how immune adaptations of wild species vary as a result of evolution in different habitats and niches. Present understanding of the influence...