The Most Overlooked Birds in North America. RSVP for Joanna Wu’s presentation, Young, Gifted & Wild About Birds

Anyone who has been on a group bird walk knows that it’s the male Scarlet Tanager, the male Indigo Bunting, the male Blackburnian Warbler that draw the attention.

But are there conservation implications if females, whose plumage is as beautiful in subtler ways, are ignored?

“The Most Overlooked Birds in North America: Females” is the topic of the next Young, Gifted and Wild About Birds, with Joanna Wu, an ornithologist and ecologist at UCLA.

Conservation gaps caused by overlooking female birds are the focus of her Ph.D. work.

Joanna’s presentation is set for 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 2, via Zoom.

We’re offering a discount: the 4 remaining presentations for the price of 3.

 Register here for the final 2 presentations!

Remember: 100% of your ticket cost for the series will go toward improving bird habitats on our 22 sanctuaries.

At check-out, you’ll have an opportunity to make an additional donation, if you choose to. Consider it an investment in our nature sanctuaries, improving habitat throughout the state.

Joanna Wu is passionate about supporting under-represented voices. She is a member of the Galbatross Project, a group of scientists, birders, writers, and conservationists spreading awareness about often overlooked female birds (National Audubon’s Brooke Bateman, who was part of the 2022 Young, Gifted and Wild About Birds, is also involved in the project).

Joanna studied the endemic thrush ‘Ōma‘o during her masters at the University of Hawai‘i, Hilo. From 2013-2016, she worked for the Institute for Bird Populations in the San Francisco Bay Area as a biologist specializing in songbirds and owls of the Sierra Nevada, where she got her start in ornithology as an undergrad at University of California, Berkeley. 

From 2016-2021, she worked on climate change analysis and communications at the National Audubon Society.

Following Joanna, the rest of the 2023 series features:

• Mikko Jimenez of Colorado State University: “Tracking Migration with BirdScan,” Thursday, March 2, 7 p.m. 
• Allison Black, sea bird and marine mammal observer for NOAA. She will talk about her experiences “Birding the High Seas,” Thursday, March 16, 7 p.m.

• Kathi Borgmann, Ph.D., Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “From Sound Recording to eBird Status and Trends Maps: How Citizen Science Informs Bird Conservation,” Thursday, April 13, 7 p.m.

These hour-long talks are all via Zoom.

Each is a window into the amazing work being done by young conservationists to solve the problems we all care so much about.

Subscribe to all 4 or to choose individual presentations. Click HERE!

Your generosity will make a real difference.

Photo of Joanna Wu by Graham Montgomery.