The Birds

Nov 11, 2016

231

The BirdsMore pictures from the field. Enjoy #thebirds. Share this post on Facebook. 
                
Brown Headed Cowbird Nestlings
                
Dickcissel nest; 3 Dickcissels nestlings and 1 Brown Headed Cowbird. The cowbird lays it's eggs in other bird's nests as reproductive strategy. 

 Dickcissel Nest: 1 Dickcissel egglet, less than one day old, 2 blue Dickcissel eggs; 1 speckled Cowbird egg
                
Adult Sedge Wren perched on a herbaceous plant
                
Adult Henslow's Sparrow perched on standing dead vegetation.
                
Adult male Dickcissel perched on Queen-Anne's-Lace

#Thebirds

#Grasslands

#Environment

Jaime J. Coon, Ryan, and 4 others like this.

2 comments

Join the conversation!Sign In

Chris McNamaraBacker

LOVE the photographs of our doughty little friends. Here's to your excellent project. I'm off to the nearest water cooler to suss out one more supporter...on to 100%!

Nov 18, 20160

Bethany KrebsBacker

Former U of I bird lab member here. Loving the pictures and missing grassland species. Hope you hit your funding goal!

Nov 11, 20161

Jaime J. CoonResearcher

Thank you! :)

Nov 11, 20160

About This Project

Biodiversity in working landscapes: Help us conserve declining grassland birds in restored Midwestern grasslands

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Though grasslands are increasingly scarce in the Midwest, there are pockets remaining on private lands grazed by cattle. Restoration thus requires balancing the needs of birds with the needs of landowners. To address this, we propose to research habitat quality for grassland birds in a working landscape. Using field data, we study grassland bird abundance, prey abundance, and nest site selection in response to invasive management and human decisions driving landscape changes.