Birds & Science
Learn more about each project (including maps showing survey location data), in the 2024 Citizen Science overview report.
In July, the Montana Audubon Black Swift research team started Black Swift surveys in MT. Here, they share what it’s like to be in the field- be sure to check out the video at the end!
Early this July, Montana Audubon in collaboration with the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab, completed another season of bird monitoring at the O’Dell Creek restoration area. Located about 4 miles south of Ennis in the beautiful Madison Valley, the O’Dell Creek restoration site has been a perfect example of restoration done right since the project’s inception in 2005.
Chimney Swifts will soon return to chimneys all over central and eastern Montana! As a relatively recent arrival in Montana. In the last three years, Audubon staff and volunteers have located new nesting sites in towns like Billings, Glasgow, and Miles City. While we know the Chimney swifts are out and about, we really need your help locating more while the birds are active and nesting! Because little is known about their nesting range throughout our state, Montana Audubon is turning to citizen science for answers. Unlike searching for other swifts, Chimney Swifts are best surveyed in towns and near buildings with large chimneys! Surveys are short, occurring 30 minutes before until 30 minutes after sunset, with observers being stationed for just a short time at selected chimneys.
In 2022, communities across the world are paying special attention to the impacts of light pollution on migratory bird species. We know that as spring approaches our night skies are filled with the chirps and cheeps of millions of night-time migrants. These birds need dark night skies to safely navigate between their breeding and nonbreeding grounds each spring and fall.
Every fall many thousands of raptors migrate south along Montana’s mountain ridges, valleys, and across our eastern plains. High ridges in the Bridger Mountains, Jewel Basin, and Mount Brown are some of the best fall hawkwatch sites in the nation, and while a visit to these locations requires a moderate to strenuous hike, it is usually well worth the effort. Long-term monitoring of fall migration at these locations where the topography funnels the southward flow of raptors can teach us a lot about population patterns and trends. But what about spring migration? When raptors move north across Montana from late March to early May it can be quite challenging or nearly impossible to reach high-elevation monitoring sites.
From January 15th through February 15th, 2022, National Audubon’s Climate Watch program is back! Winter surveys include 12 short point-counts for target species like White-Breasted Nuthatch, Pygmy Nuthatch, and Red-Breasted Nuthatch; species that can often be found in your backyard.
Where can you go on a one hour hike and arrive at a breathtaking vista point from which you can watch a grizzly bear foraging for hours from a safe distance, mingle with mountain goats, and see hundreds of migrating raptors that regularly pass so close that you can actually see the color of their eyes? I know of only one such location: the Jewel Basin hawkwatch. This site sits atop of a narrow, steep ridge less than a mile northwest of the summit of Mt. Aeneas and about 9 miles northeast of Bigfork. The dozens, if not hundreds over the years, of dedicated staff and volunteers that monitor raptor movement at this site every fall know how incredible this hawkwatch is. Even on slow days, when less than a handful of raptors pass by every hour, it is a fantastic place to be. On good days, when Sharp-shinned Hawks, Golden Eagles, Cooper’s Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks, in addition to 14 other raptor species, may fly by at a rate of one or more every minute, the experience is simply unforgettable.
