Migratory Birds

The USGS conducts research on marine wildlife, habitats, and processes to provide science to inform our partners as they make decisions relative to species status, resource use, and human activities.

The Challenge: The genomic revolution is giving wildlife biologists new tools to assess the role of wildlife in spreading diseases that affect human populations. Peptide arrays are a high throughput technology that gives unprecedented breadth and depth of information about the immune system. We are using peptide arrays to assess the immune responses of Chesapeake Bay waterfowl to avian influenza...

The Challenge: The health of the abundant waterfowl species of Chesapeake Bay has become a major concern due to the spread of Avian Influenza (AI) across North America and the role of waterfowl as a vector of AI. For decades, the health of the Bay’s waterfowl has been affected by the degradation of water quality and food supply due to industrial contaminants,agricultural run-off, pollution from...

Several species of shorebird that nest in the Arctic make remarkable non-stop trans-oceanic migrations to non-breeding areas in the southern hemisphere. Scientists at the USGS Alaska Science Center have discovered many fascinating and previously unknown details about these long-distance migrations by instrumenting individual birds with Argos satellite transmitters (see ASC Shorebird Research web...

Waterbirds such as shorebirds, waders, and ducks depend on healthy and productive estuaries to “fuel up” for long distance migrations along the Pacific Flyway. Estuarine ecosystems include a mosaic of managed, natural, and restoring wetlands , and provide critical stop-over and wintering areas for federally protected migratory bird species. USGS WERC’s Dr. Susan De La Cruz works with federal...

The North American Breeding Bird Survey program (BBS) provides critical science-based population data for more than 400 bird species to improve our understanding of how these federally entrusted species respond to environmental variability and ecosystem change. The BBS generates results that inform Federal wildlife managers in the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, Department of...

Common loons often migrate several hundred miles to reach coastal waters during fall migration. Information about this part of the loon's life history is not well known. The use of satellite telemetry allows biologists to track loon movements through distant migrations and during winter. A transmitter attached to a radiomarked loon periodically sends a signal which is detected by a satellite-based...

Three federal wildlife refuge complexes on the upper Texas coast include portions of the Columbia Bottomlands and other forests that are important for migratory birds and possibly bats: Texas Mid-Coast, Trinity River, and Chenier Plain.

Knowing where migratory birds consistently stop to rest and forage is critical for conservation planning, particularly along the northern and western Gulf where there is increased interest in energy development.

Flight facilitates comparatively rapid access to large areas, and the study of the movements of birds is essential for learning their relationships to their environment, and for managing the resources on which they depend and conserving the communities in which they live. Often the amount of space used by raptors varies with behavior associated with the birds’ ages and with the annual cycle. For...

Energy production has become essential for modern society. At the same time, this process can have negative effects on wildlife and ecosystems. It is in the best interest of society and the environment to understand these effects and to manage and mitigate for them. Our team focuses on measuring how energy development influences birds of prey and learning how to minimize impacts.

This work provides basic information for managing golden eagles in the context of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668-668d). The recent development of energy resources, such as wind, oil, gas, and solar, can potentially affect landscapes in ways that require changes in golden eagle management practices. Our work emphasizes priority information needs identified by the USGS and U...