Over the past few decades, the vast coniferous forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental have undergone a drastic transformation, losing 99.4% of their original extent. This change has placed species like the Thick-billed Parrot in grave danger, as their habitat has been devastated by logging and fires, affecting their ability to nest and feed. However, thanks to the joint effort of many institutions and countless dedicated individuals, we have managed to halt this trend.
Furthermore, collaboration and coordination through Partners in Flight (PIF) working groups have been fundamental in achieving these advances. We are working together with forest management units, building local capacities, and promoting management practices that ensure the conservation of the parrot. This demonstrates that with effort and cooperation, it is possible to reverse the damage and protect our valuable biodiversity.

Through the Partners in Flight (PIF) Awards, PIF has been recognizing outstanding individuals and groups across the Americas for their exceptional contributions to the field of landbird conservation since 1996. We were pleased to have five 2023 PIF Award winners, including from Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Several of the 2023 PIF Awardees were recognized in front of their peers in the spring of 2024, at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Michigan and a Gulf Coast Joint Venture Management Board Meeting in Louisiana. The BirdsCaribbean 24th International Conference in July 2024, which was held in the Dominican Republic, provided a wonderful opportunity to present a 2023 PIF Leadership Award to Dr. Adrianne Tossas, President of BirdsCaribbean.

Partners in Flight is excited to introduce Jocelynn Marriott as the new acting interim US Coordinator. We look forward to her leadership for PIF over the next few months. Please get to know Jocelynn by reviewing their bio below and say hi to her in PIF meetings,

The 2023 Partners in Flight (PIF) awardees were first recognized through a PowerPoint presentation given by Valerie Foster Stein with U.S. Forest Service, Interim PIF U.S. Coordinator, during the March 2024 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Michigan, at the Forest Service Partners Meeting and Partners in Flight Awards venue. Two of the awardees were able to attend this venue to receive their awards in person. Another 2023 PIF Awardee was recognized in a surprise presentation at the Gulf Coast Joint Venture Management Board Meeting in Houma, Louisiana in April 2024.

Partners in Flight is hosting its first Community Engagement Fellow in partnership with the American Bird Conservancy. The PIF Equitable Engagement Fellow will help to center the importance of ongoing landbird conservation efforts by Latin American and Caribbean partners. We are especially interested in identifying partners and projects that address landbird conservation and the needs of local people.

A principios de los años 90s, mis maestros, el Dr. Eduardo Santana C. y el Dr. William A. Calder III, me sumergieron en el fascinante universo de los colibríes. Junto a la Dra. Coro Arizmendi, compartimos una pasión que se convirtió en mi trayectoria vital. Este sueño, vislumbrado por Calder, se hizo realidad gracias a sus enseñanzas. La búsqueda de tecnología para rastrear colibríes comenzó entre 2010 y 2011, cuando exploraba opciones para innovar mi proyecto de investigación del doctorado en el Laboratorio SILVIS de la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison. Inspirada por las migraciones de colibríes y las oportunidades del Western Hummingbird Partnership y Partners In Fligth (PIF), en 2019, en una reunión precisamente del Western Working Group-PIF en San Diego, David La Puma presentó la red Motus. En esa reunión, David y yo discutimos el sueño de rastrear colibríes. David, anillador de colibríes, anhelaba conectar transmisores a los colibríes Garganta de Rubí  (Archilochus colubris), mientras yo, dedicada a décadas de estudio en México sobre los efectos de las perturbaciones en colibríes, esperaba rastrear al Zumbador Canelo (Selasphorus rufus). Aunque la tecnología actual no lo permitía, David prometió: ‘Un Pronto’.

PIF is excited to welcome our new Interim U.S. Coordinator, Valerie Foster. She will be the coordinator through March 2024.

“Mike” has left us… one of the great leaders and a true archetype of conservation in Mexico. Originally from Castaños, Coahuila, he was born into a large family of hard-working and good people characterized by the culture of effort, respect, mutual support, and affection. Miguel Angel distinguished himself from a very young age for his great attachment to the land and his love for nature.

In honor of PIF’s 30th anniversary, the PIF International Science Committee wanted to celebrate PIF’s many achievements while recognizing that there is much more work to do to conserve landbirds and the ecosystems that support them. Thus, the committee decided to update a previous PIF publication, Blancher et al. (2006), to re-examine how migratory birds link geographies across the Western Hemisphere and to re-energize and build new cross-boundary partnerships for bird conservation.

Partners in Flight (PIF) is a dynamic and welcoming network of more than 150 partner organizations throughout the Western Hemisphere. We all share PIF’s mission of keeping common birds common and helping species at risk through voluntary partnerships. To more effectively engage and bring together these partners, PIF has been analyzing barriers to participation and is working to make PIF more inclusive. Recently, PIF has added a translation plugin to the website. Now the website can be translated into eight languages including Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The button can be found on the top right of the webpage.