Partner Projects
Join Us As We Grow the Collaborative
This site is designed to keep you informed about the Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative as it works to expand conservation efforts across the Southeastern U.S. to restore target bird species’ habitat by promoting the tool of prescribed fire; preparing private lands in various stages of restoration for growing season burning; and engaging with private landowners, students, and the general public about the differences and benefits of dormant season fire versus growing season fire.
Recent studies have highlighted the dramatic reduction of bird populations throughout North America. In the Southeast, many of these reductions have been caused not only by habitat loss, but also habitat degradation. In particular, the suppression of fire in the fire-adapted ecosystems of the Southeast has resulted in the loss of nesting and foraging habitat for a surprisingly-broad array of bird species, as well as an entire suite of reptiles, amphibians, insects, mammals, and plants.
Past phases of the Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative have focused on the positive impacts of prescribed burning on fire-adapted species such as Northern bobwhite quail and Bachman’s sparrow, however; each phase has also documented other SWAP-listed bird species during surveys, such as prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) and red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus).
During this third phase of the project, we are not only growing the collaborative regionally by adding partners in Georgia and South Carolina, we are also monitoring for additional target bird species.
Meet the newest additions: Brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), Eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), and Loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).
Brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla). Photo by Jay McGowan, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library.
Eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). Photo by Andres Vasquez Noboa, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library.
Loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus). Photo by Andy Liu, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library.
Together with its new partners - Aiken Land Conservancy, the Georgia Conservancy, and Putnam Land Conservancy - the Burning for Birds Collaborative has proposed project activities that will bolster efforts to promote prescribed fire as an effective tool for restoring habitat for the benefit of birds and other wildlife. Grant funding from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative will provide support to these new partners to prepare for the introduction of growing season fire to private lands, laying the groundwork for habitat restoration activities that will benefit the project’s target birds as well as other bird and wildlife species in the future.
Learn more about each partner’s project below.
Project Pages
Alachua Conservation Trust & Putnam Land Conservancy
(North Central Florida)
Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy
(North Florida & South Georgia)
Georgia Conservancy
(Southeast Georgia)
Aiken Land Conservancy
(Southwest South Carolina)
