Bird Communities of the Northern Rockies

Bird Communities of the Northern Rockies

Radar ornithology is an emerging technology that can be used to construct intelligent, data mining algorithms that can identify radar echoes caused by migrating birds, using NEXRAD weather data. The digital signature algorithms will be used to delineate, validate, and map migration patterns across the landscape, and to describe the associated temporal patterns of bird migration. Such capability is needed by managers in working with the siting of wind energy developments, tracking and predicting disease spread from migratory birds, and evaluating habitat acquisition and management programs across the landscape.

Migratory bird management and the national wildlife refuge system share strong scientific linkages related to flyway processes. We are working with biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service across the Northern U.S. on a variety of research and decision support projects, sometimes on issues concerning widespread bird movements among areas, and sometimes to build more site specific tools that can be exported to other locales.

Current Projects

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