Faculty Café: Dr. Susan Willson on Conserving the Declining Evening Grosbeak with the Road to Recovery Working Group
Dr. Susan Willson will discuss the conservation of the rapidly declining Evening Grosbeak at the Faculty Café on February 26. As part of the Road to Recovery Working Group, she tracks migratory routes using nanotags to understand the threats driving this species’ dramatic population decline and inform long-term conservation strategies.
The Evening Grosbeak, a striking yellow, black, and white finch, was once common across the northern United States and Canada but has lost more than 92% of its continental population over the past 50 years. Dr. Susan Willson will present her work with the Road to Recovery Working Group, which uses nanotag technology to track the birds’ migratory connectivity between wintering grounds in the Adirondacks and breeding grounds in the Canadian boreal forest. By understanding these migratory routes, the team can identify the seasonal threats contributing to the species’ steep decline and develop strategies to support its long-term recovery.