Next on Young, Gifted & Wild About Birds — Separate and Unequal: Birds and Nature in Connecticut’s Cities

Do the parks and overgrown lots in Connecticut’s poorer urban neighborhoods have fewer birds or does it just seem that way because fewer birders visit those places? The question has important implications not just for birds but for the well-being of neighborhood residents too. 

Join us via Zoom on Thursday, February 15, 2024, 7-8 p.m., for a presentation on the topic by Diego Ellis Soto, a Ph.D. candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale.

Diego calls his presentation: “Biodiversity data is shaped by socioeconomics in the Age of Digital Information: Are there less birds or is there less bird data?”

We call it: “Separate and Unequal: Birds and Nature in Connecticut’s Cities”

Diego Ellis Soto has been studying the correlation between the economic status of neighborhoods in New Haven and their bird populations and diversity.  
 
What he’s found is that racially segregated neighborhoods have fewer birds. Those neighborhoods also show up far less on eBird.  
 
His research could help bring attention to the need for more and better parks and sanctuaries throughout the city, for the benefit of its people and its birds.
 
A native of Uruguay, Diego is a NASA FINESST Future Investigator. He works at the intersection of ecology, technology, conservation, and environmental justice, researching how animals move across the world under increasing human threats and a changing climate.

He is increasingly interested in how the information we have about species and ecosystems is influenced by our wealth and social standing. He’s also looking at how historical and current inequalities make the gaps in environmental knowledge even bigger.

In addition to his presentation, he will be talking and taking questions with Matt Bell, Connecticut Audubon EcoTravel’s Matt Bell.

 Buy tickets HERE for the February 15 presentation by Diego Ellis Soto