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Links to several new items in the Conservation Resource Library are available in this article. New additions include the Natural Selections Spring 2021 Newsletter dedicated to Department of Defense celebrating 30 Years with Partners in Flight; State of the Birds update from N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission; PIF Science Presentation recordings; the new Landbird Habitat Conservation Strategy – Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes Region Joint Venture; NABCI’s Field Guide to Developing Partnerships; and a Western Working Group special presentation by Terry Rich: How do Individual Attributes Predict Bird Conservation Behaviors Among Birders in the United States?

Through the Partners in Flight Awards, PIF has been recognizing outstanding individuals and groups for their exceptional contributions to the field of landbird conservation since 1996. The 2020 PIF Awards, sponsored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were presented on March 11, 2021 at the 86th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. The 2020 PIF Awards highlight exceptional talent and commitment to conservation. Click to learn more and to watch the 2020 PIF Awards Presentation.

People have come to the Partners in Flight network through different routes from different backgrounds. For PIF’s 30th anniversary year, we asked our partners to share their stories of becoming involved in PIF, and how their involvement has been beneficial. Please enjoy these rich Testimonials.

The endangered Least Bell’s Vireo was once common in San Diego and California’s Central Valley until habitat loss and other threats propelled their decline. Multiple efforts including riparian habitat restoration work by River Partners have helped California’s breeding population of Least Bell’s Vireos rebound from about 300 breeding pairs in 1986 to about 2,500 in 2004.

Studying a species that is poorly understood has many challenges, but it also brings opportunity; most importantly the opportunity to build a community from the ground up. Elegant yet enigmatic: we know little about nighthawks, and yet they are declining in many parts of their range. A new collaborative study in Ecography is a big step in the right direction for this species.

Researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Appalachian Laboratory, University of Delaware, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University, Georgetown University, University of Massachusetts and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center defined a new migration metric called the stopover-to-passage ratio (SPR). Using eight years of data from 12 weather surveillance radars, they found approximately half of the birds migrating through the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the southeastern U.S. stop within 100 km of its coastlines, totaling ~1.2 to 2.0 billion birds each spring and autumn. Further, the drivers of stopover habitat use differed between spring and autumn migration, suggesting seasonal differences in habitat function.

Recognizing the need for new perspectives to address the severe declines of North American birds, on October 28, 2020, the Western Working Group of Partners in Flight convened virtually to stimulate novel thinking around the Five Game Changers concept and to generate actionable ideas to make the Game Changers game-changing.

The Sonoran Joint Venture, Bureau of Land Management Arizona State Office, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department funded and developed the new Species Accounts tool, an easy-to-use resource for agency biologists, land managers, and others who deal with everyday decisions that affect birds and their habitats. The Species Accounts can save time and energy while encouraging land managers to consider and promote bird conservation in harmony with other management goals and decisions.

Recent additions include “Conservation on a Grand Scale,” “Decision Support Tool: Science and Adaptive Management in a National Monument,” and “Partners in Flight Action Brief – September 2020.”

It’s October and birds are on the move, and none more so than the Blackpoll Warbler. Thousands of these medium-sized warblers are streaming across North America towards the Atlantic coast in preparation for an epic journey to South America. Remarkably, where Blackpoll Warblers touch down in South America and what they do on arrival was largely unknown until recently…