Avian Research Program

This partnership will help support the development and statistical analysis of over 6 years of accumulated data from several monitoring programs. The Avian Monitoring Coordinator, with contracted analytical support will generate multi-year reports for the 6-year old Migration Monitoring Program, and the 5-year old Project Prairie Birds study. In addition, funds will be used to purchase field supplies for the Forest Bird Study of the Columbia Bottomlands, and basic site support costs for the annual Smith Point Hawk Watch.

The three avian research projects currently managed by the GCBO are Migration Monitoring, Smith Point Hawk Watch, and Project Prairie Birds. The Migration Monitoring program is a long-term research project whereby volunteers throughout the Gulf region and beyond gather information on migratory birds. This information is being collected and analyzed to address the many unanswered questions related to migration in order to understand how to protect birds. A second project, Smith Point Hawk Watch monitors raptor populations as they pass through southeast Texas on migration. The third research program, Project Prairie Birds, involves citizen scientists monitoring wintering grassland birds in coastal prairies to determine the trends and habitat requirements of the birds that utilize this highly threatened habitat type. This research is of great importance since prairies are the most endangered ecosystem in Texas. There is clearly an education component to these research programs for the many participating partners, and the GCBO is directly involved in outreach through various events, publications, and presentations which serve to communicate the importance of bird and habitat conservation to the public.

Partners: Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, Conoco, Reliant Energy Inc., British Petroleum, and the Texas Coastal Program