Connecticut Audbon Society

Connecticut State of the Birds

Connecticut State of the Birds 2023

5 Key Issues: New knowledge and better technologies are changing conservation

The natural world is in a perpetual state of transition. Meadows become young forests which become old-growth. Storms, tides, and currents resculpt the coastline. Climate change alters regions in ways that we’re only just now starting to reckon with. Conservation strategies and tactics change too, in reaction or anticipation.

The 2023 report looks at five key areas of conservation that previous Connecticut State of the Birds reports examined. They are examples of how new knowledge, new realities, increased human effort, and better technologies are either resulting in changes or resulting in the awareness that things had better change, and fast.

All Connecticut Audubon members receive a copy in the mail.

Get a PDF of the 2023 report HERE.

To become a member, click HERE!

For a PDF of the 2022 report, click HERE!
(Note that the report may take several minutes to arrive. If you’ve clicked this link in the past and received a report, the process is set up so that you will not receive a second copy.)

The report is edited by Tom Andersen, Connecticut Audubon’s communications director, and overseen by Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation.

This year’s authors:

    • Viveca Morris, clinical lecturer and a research scholar in Law at Yale Law School, and the executive director of the Yale Law School’s Law, Ethics & Animals Program, which she co-founded. She is a leader of the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative.
    • Danica Doroski, Ph.D., Connecticut’s State Urban Forester with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
    • Robert A. Askins Ph.D., the Katharine Blunt Professor Emeritus of Biology at Connecticut College. He is nationally recognized for his research of the ecology of migratory birds and the impact of habitat fragmentation on birdpopulations.  He has written two books. one on conservation of North American birds and the other on the ecology of temperate-zone forests.
    • Min T. Huang, Ph.D., the Migratory Bird Program leader for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Tom Andersen is Connecticut Audubon’s communications director and is editor of Connecticut State of the Birds.
    • David Foster, Ph.D., Director Emeritus of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University and co-coordinator of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative.  Brian Hall, Ph.D., is a GIS researcher at the Harvard Forest and Highstead where his work allows him to combine his love of nature with a scientific search for truth.

      Connecticut State of the Birds 2023 is sponsored by

Throughout the years authors have included:

  • Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Connecticut State Ornithologist Margaret Rubega of the University of Connecticut
  • Pulitzer Prize-nominee Scott Weidensaul
  • Peter Marra of Georgetown University, formerly the head of the migratory bird center at the Smithsonian.
  • Chris S. Elphick, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut
  • Kathleen Van Der Aue, chair emeritus of the Connecticut Audubon Society and former president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association
  • David Winkler, Ph.D., of Cornell University
  • David Mizrahi, Ph.D., of New Jersey Audubon
  • Carol Foss, Ph.D., of New Hampshire Audubon
  • Former Commissioner Rob Klee of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
  • Tykee James, National Audubon Society
  • Amy Blaymore Paterson, the Connecticut Land Conservation Council
  • Stephen B. Oresman, former chairman of the Connecticut Audubon Society and former president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association
  • Bill Labich, senior conservationist, Highstead Foundation.
  • Sally Harold of The Nature Conservancy
  • Calandra Stanley, Ph.D., of Georgetown University.
  • Leah Lopez Schmalz, president of Save the Sound
  • Wayne R. Peterson of Massachusetts Audubon
  • Randy Dettmers of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
  • Jenny Dickson of the CT DEEP
  • Chad Seewagen, Ph.D., of the Great Hollow Nature Preserve
  • Jamie Vaudrey, Ph.D., of UConn/Avery Point
  • Sam Apgar, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut
  • Scott Kruitbosch, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute
  • Peter Paton, Ph.D., of the University of Rhode Island
  • Pamela Loring, Ph.D., of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  • Timothy White, Ph.D., of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
  • Drew Lanham, Ph.D., of Clemson University
  • Former CT DEEP commissioner Leslie Carothers
  • Desiree Narango, Ph.D., of UMass Amherst
  • Morgan Tingley, Ph.D., of UCLA
  • Arvind Panjabi of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
  • Author Deborah Cramer of MIT

state of the birds report coverClick the titles to download copies of Connecticut State of the Birds

2021 3 Billion Birds are Gone. How Do We Bring Them Back? For a PDF, click HERE.
(Note that the report may take several minutes to arrive. If you’ve clicked this link in the past and received a report, the process is set up so that you will not receive a second copy.)

2020 Pandemic: Conservationists Scramble in the Field, the Lab, and the Legislature

2019 An Improved Long Island Sound Faces Unpredictable Change. Can Birds, Fish, Conservationists, & Government Adapt?

2018 In Cities and Suburbs: A Fresh Look at How Birds Are Surviving in Connecticut

2017 The New Bird Atlas: A Call to Action for Connecticut’s Conservationists

2016 Gains, Losses and the Prospect of Extinction

2015 Protecting and Connecting Large Landscapes

2014 Connecticut’s Diverse Landscape: Managing Our Habitats for Wildlife

2013 The Seventh Habitat and the Decline of Our Aerial Insectivores.

2012 Where Is the Next Generation of Conservationists Coming From?

2011 Conserving our Forest Birds

2010 Citizen Scientists Contribute to Conservation

2009 Bird Conservation Priorities

2008 Specific Conservation Complexities and Challenges

2007 Specific Threats to Connecticut’s Birds

2006 Conserving Birds and Their Habitats

Connecticut State of the Birds cover collage

  

 

 

 

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