Birding News and Features
eBird Your CBC Data
December 14 will begin the 112th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season, and the first big weekend of counts will be 17-18 December. The Christmas Count is the largest and longest-running ornithological citizen science project. Its data are a great complement to what we are collecting in eBird, and indeed the CBC has paved the way for eBird in many respects. It is not a problem to enter data in eBird and then submit it for the CBC too, since the two projects are collecting data in similar ways, but at different scales. eBird can be a great way to store your sector-level data and compare it from year to year.
2012 Winter Wings Registration Now Open!
Registration is now open for the 33rd Annual Winter Wings Festival, being held over President's Day weekend in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Sponsored by the Klamath Basin Audubon Society, Winter Wings is one of the longest-running bird festivals in the United States. This year's Winter Wings Festival will feauture keynote speakers Kenn Kaufman, birder and celebrated authour of Kingbird Highway, and renowned nature photographer Darrell Gulin.
2011 Christmas Bird Count: Join a Local Team!
This holiday season, consider participating in your local Christmas Bird Count. The Christmas Bird Count is a long-standing citizen science effort that provides valuable information on winter bird populations in the U.S. It's also a lot of fun, and a great way to get outdoors in the winter and get to know your local birding community!
eBird Version 3 Launched
Klamath-Siskiyou eBirders: Here is some information about eBird version 3, the new and improved eBird interface. The new version makes eBird data entry easier, and provides powerful new tools and features for using eBird's vast database. Check it out today! The following article was originally published at www.ebird.org on October 7th, 2011:
In the Fall of 2005 we launched eBird Version 2. Major changes to the site at that time included the addition of the 'My eBird' pages, and a redesigned 'look and feel'. We've come a long way since then! eBird Version 3 incorporates many of your ideas, and we're proud of the improvements we've made over the last few years. Your feedback has enabled us to launch eBird globally, helped us create a better and more streamlined data entry system, helped develop the fun side of birding through tools like the 'eBird Top 100', and helped us build better mapping tools that allow you to access the database in a better and more comprehensive manner. We appreciate all your participation, dedication, and support over the years, and we're happy to announce the official launch of eBird Version 3.
Best of the Bioregion Wine Competition Highlights Sustainable and Bird-friendly Vineyards
Looking for a new place to eBird? Consider combining a birding trip with a visit to one of the vineyards highlighted in Klamath Bird Observatory's 2nd Annual Best of the Bioregion wine competition. This unique wine competition features vineyards and wineries that work to practice sustainable and wildlife friendly farming and grape production in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California.
KBO To Celebrate Bird Conservation at 4th Annual Wings & Wine Gala
Mark your calendars! On Saturday, September 17th, Klamath Bird Observatory will host its 4th annual Wings and Wine Gala, benefiting bird research and education in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion. This fun annual event will take place at Historic Hanley Farm in Central Point from 6-10 pm.
eBird Contributes Data to 2011 State of the Birds Report
On May 3rd, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Harris Sherman released the 2011 State of the Birds Report on Public Lands and Waters. This year’s report follows the 2009 State of the Birds Report and the 2010 State of the Birds Report on Climate Change. All three reports were developed through the American Bird Conservation Initiative U.S. Committee, with support from many state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations.
In 2011 local NGO Klamath Bird Observatory again played a key role in the development of the report, with KBO Executive Director John Alexander serving as a member of the Science Team that authored the report. eBirders were valuable contributors to the report, providing citizen science data on the abundance and distribution of hundreds of bird species. These data fed into models that predict the occurrence of these species across nearly 850 million acres of public land. To view the 2011 State of the Birds Report, visit www.stateofthebirds.org.
2011 Winter Wings Festival-an eBirding Success!
In 2011 the Winter Wings Festival marked its third year as an official eBird festival, and it was without question our best year yet! Field trips and other observations throughout the Festival recorded a total of 113 species and hundreds of thousands of individual birds. Previous species totals were 82 in 2009 and 93 in 2010. The higher species count and the overall increase in the number of birds reported was due to the dedicated efforts of the Festival coordinators, Klamath Bird Observatory staff, and a terrific crew of field trip leaders and assistants.
Sharpen Your Raptor ID Skills with Bill Clark!
This coming weekend, the Klamath Basin Audubon Society is sponsoring an Advanced Raptor Identification Weekend with renowned raptor expert Bill Clark. Spaces are still available!
What: Advanced Raptor Identification Weekend
When: March 4-6 (March 4: 7-9 pm; March 5/6: all day)
Where: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Cost: $125
Join us for the 32nd Annual Winter Wings Festival
The 32nd annual Winter Wings Festival is fast approaching! Join us this President's Day weekend in Klamath Falls for three days of workshops, classes and birding in one of the nation's top winter birding destinations.
Christmas Bird Count Snapshot: Local Birders Revive Ashland CBC
On Dec. 29th, 2010, about forty birders hit the snow-covered sidewalks, hillsides, trails and lakeshores of Ashland in a newly reinstituted Christmas Bird Count. The last official Ashland count was in 1941.
2011 Winter Wings Festival
Registration for the 2011 Winter Wings Festival is now open! This year's festival will take place from February 18th-20th, 2011 in Klamath Falls, OR. Register today to ensure your space at this fantastic annual event, which features dozens of classes, workshops, field trips and guest lectures for bird enthusiasts of all ages.
Join Audubon's 2010 Christmas Bird Count!
From December 14th to January 5th, join the Audubon Society and thousands of other birders across the country in contributing citizen science data through the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). This count is the oldest in the nation, and contributes valuable information to our understanding of wintering birds in the United States.
Conservation in the Context of Climate Change: Birds as a Tool for Adaptation
In mid-October, the Klamath Bird Observatory served as the local host for a joint Oregon/Washington and California Partners in Flight climate change workshop in Ashland, Oregon. The workshop was designed to promote information sharing, inform ecological planning, and identify information gaps and monitoring needs related to landbirds in Washington, Oregon, and California in the context of climate change.
Celebrate 10 Years of Bird Conservation with the Klamath Bird Observatory
On September 25th from 6 to 10 pm, join Klamath Bird Observatory at the third annual "Wings and Wine" Gala at Historic Hanley Farm outside of Jacksonville, Oregon. This year, Klamath Bird Observatory is celebrating ten years of success in advancing bird conservation through science, education and partnerships!
Partners in Flight Releases Tri-National Plan for Bird Conservation
Recognizing that bird conservation in the western hemisphere will
require a coordinated, multi-country effort, leading conservation
organizations from Canada, Mexico and the United States have released a
landmark report. The report, Saving our Shared Birds: Partners in Flight Tri-National Vision for Landbird Conservation, outlines the continent-scale conservation actions that will be
necessary to sustain healthy landbird populations into the future.
As the report states, "Our three nations of Canada, Mexico, and the continental United States are home to more than 1,150 species of birds, including 882 native landbird species. Conserving our shared birds will require a continental, and ultimately hemispheric, perspective and a commitment to international cooperation."
2010 Winter Wings Festival Highlights
The 2010 Winter Wings Festival, held from February 12th-14th in Klamath Falls, Oregon, proved to be another great success! This year, 550 participants were treated to three days of birding field trips, workshops, and presentations led by top-notch birding experts from across the country. For the second year running, the Winter Wings Festival was an official eBird festival!
Secretary Salazar Releases 2010 State of The Birds Report on Climate Change
On March 11, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the 2010 State of the Birds Report on Climate Change. Speaking in Austin, Texas, Secretary Salazar stated that “For well over a century, migratory birds have faced stresses such as commercial hunting, loss of forests, the use of DDT and other pesticides, a loss of wetlands and other key habitat, the introduction of invasive species, and other impacts of human development. Now they are facing a new threat – climate change – that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction.”
The 2010 report, developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with the nation's leading conservation organizations, highlights the need for a number of conservation efforts. These include reducing carbon emissions, protecting key bird habitats, ensuring stable food supplies, and the removal of invasive species that pose a threat to bird populations.
Klamath Bird Observatory Banding Intern Publishes eBird Research
Thanks to millions of contributions from citizen birders since eBird’s launch in 2002, the eBird database now holds a tremendous amount of information about bird populations around the world. In addition to being used by agencies and scientific organizations to advance bird conservation, eBird data can also be used by people like you and me to learn about birds in our area. By using tools in the “View and Explore Data” feature of eBird, eBirders can truly become citizen scientists, exploring questions related to migration timing, abundance and distribution of birds. The following example demonstrates the power of eBird data for citizen scientists: Karl Fairchild, a 2009 Klamath Bird Observatory banding intern, published a scientific paper in Oregon Birds using eBird data on Orange-crowned Warblers in Oregon.
Join Klamath-Siskiyou eBird at the Winter Wings Festival!
This President’s Day weekend, join thousands of other bird enthusiasts at the 31st annual Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Falls, Oregon, on the shores of Upper Klamath Lake. Sponsored by the Klamath Basin Audubon Society, Winter Wings will feature an array of bird-related activities and educational workshops for all ages.
