AnnuAl RepoRt to membeRs | 2012 - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Global reach:DATAdiscovering nest sites in haitiBlack-capped Petrels, once thought to beextinct, are still critically endangered. But effortsto protect them have been stymied by lack ofknowledge about their cliffside nest burrows.In 2008, James Goetz (now a Cornell Lab Ph.D.student) spearheaded expeditions along the forestedcliffs of Haiti to search for petrel breedingcolonies. Since then, Goetz has worked with theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and local partnerslike Grupo Jaragua and Fondation Seguin,to find more than 30 petrel nesting locations—yielding a bounty of petrel nesting biology datawhere once there was a black hole.TrainingCornell Lab Ph.D. student JamesGoetz and partners in the DominicanRepublic snapped one of thefirst photos of a Black-capped Petrelchick in a mountaintop cave in Haiti.Safeguarding Thrush habitat in HispaniolaAbout 90 percent of the global Bicknell’s Thrush population winters inHispaniola. This is a species in serious decline, with fewer than 40,000individuals left. To keep tabs on wintering Bicknell’s Thrushes, and to identifyand protect critical habitat, the Cornell Lab and partners such as theVermont Center for Ecostudies conducted bird-monitoring workshops inthe Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Lab’s scientists trained universitystudents and park rangers in mist netting, bioacoustics surveys, and radiotelemetry. Haitian and Dominican biologists are now gathering data for aconservation plan that combines economic incentives, protected reserves,and forest restoration to safeguard Bicknell’s Thrush wintering grounds.James GoetzPutting ItAll Togetherin CubaCuba is critical habitat for birds. TheCuban Archipelago is the winter home ormigratory flyway for 229 species of NorthAmerican breeding birds, including 98 percentof Ospreys from the eastern United States andCanada and 80 percent of U.S. Black-throatedBlue Warblers. The Cornell Lab of Ornithologyhas been working for the past 10 years on cooperativeconservation projects in Cuba. The effortbegan with Cornell Lab and Cuban scientistsconducting joint bird-survey expeditions intoremote rainforests to identify wintering habitatfor Neotropical birds. The surveys also foundcritical habitat for endangered Cuban endemics,such as the Fernandina Flicker (one of the world’srarest woodpeckers) and the world’s smallestbird—the Bee Hummingbird (2 inches tall andweighing less than a penny). Over ensuing years,Lab scientists, educators, and audio expertsreturned to teach field ornithology courses andacoustic monitoring workshops. The Lab andCuban partners produced and shipped 7,000CDs of the first all-Cuban bird audio guide and10,0000 copies of Aves de Cuba—a Spanish-languageCuban bird field guide—to be distributed10