montana audubon - bird conservation
Audubon works to monitor and conserve birds, emphasizing projects that engage volunteers in citizen science or contribute uniquely to the protection of species of concern. Much of our bird conservation efforts occur through our Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program and through policy work on our top tier ISSUES. For information on birds and climate change go HERE >>
Below we highlight the current status of birds and a handful of our efforts to conserve birds, learn more, and educate others.
- 2009 State of the Birds
- 2009 Inventory and Monitoring of Montana's Waterbirds - This link will send you to the citizen science page of our website
- Montana Bird Conservation Partnership and All-bird Conservation Coordinator
- Common Birds in Decline -- 2007 report
State of the birds -- 2009
March 2009. New State of the Birds Report from US Fish & Wildlife Service, Audubon and a host of top-flight conservation organizations calls for conservation action!
This STATE of the BIRDS report, along with accompanying video and details of conservation threats is available HERE >>
This report has garnered a great deal of media attention. For example, the Daily Inter Lake's March 21 article discusses this report in the context of energy development with a "Call to Action". Read it HERE >>
For a link to National Audubon Society's position on this report and more information, click HERE >>
MOntana bird conservation partnership & All-bird conservation coordinator
Last fall, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) hired Catherine Wightman to be the new Avian Biologist All-Bird Conservation Coordinator, a 2-year pilot program. Many bird biologists and conservation's from throughout the state have long advocated for the creation of this position, and Montana Audubon played a leadership role in securing this commitment from FWP. With more than 400 species of native birds in Montana, we surely need statewide leadership for “all bird” conservation! Catherine resides in the Montana Audubon office, and we are working closely together on inventory and monitoring projects.
Catherine spearheads the newly invigorated Montana Bird Conservation Partnership. This partnership is a group of individuals representing governmental, tribal, nongovernmental, and private organizations dedicated to bird conservation in Montana. Our goal is to facilitate statewide implementation of the four National bird initiatives, Partner’s in Flight, Waterbirds, Waterfowl, and Shorebirds, and the overarching North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI).
For more information or to join the MBCP listserve, go to MBCP at the Avian Science Center
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montana common birds in decline
In June 2007, the National Audubon Society released a report on the common birds that are declining throughout the United States. In order to understand what this report indicated about birds in our state, Montana Audubon pulled out the information in the report relevant to our state. The data showed that 29 of Montana’s common birds are declining, including American Coot, American Redstart, Baird's Sparrow, Belted Kingfisher, Blue-winged Teal, Boreal Chickadee, Brewer's Sparrow, Cassin's Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Common Grackle, Common Yellowthroat, Dark-eyed Junco, Evening Grosbeak, Grasshopper Sparrow, Great Blue Heron, Horned Lark, House Sparrow, Killdeer, Loggerhead Shrike, Orange-crowned Warbler, Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, Ruffed Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Short-eared Owl, Snow Bunting, Sora, Vesper Sparrow, and Western Meadowlark. In order to draw attention to this report, Montana Audubon has highlighted five of these species that depend on wetlands and streamside habitat. See Montana Birds Send Warning About Our Water and Wetlands and the Billings Gazette article Report: Common Birds in Decline.
The National Audubon report is based on an analysis of 30 years of data from Breeding Bird Surveys and Christmas Bird Counts. It is available HERE >>.
For information contact: Amy Cilimburg, Director of Bird Conservation, at 406-465-1141