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Spearheaded by Min Huang, PhD, Wildlife Biologist for the Connecticut DEEP and head of the Migratory Bird Program, this project will focus on all birds that breed, winter or migrate in Connecticut. The birding community will be called on to conduct surveys for the state Bird Atlas Project. The reason for the project is to contribute meaningful data for the State Action Wildlife Plan, for conservation planning, and to establish Environment Health Metrics. We hope you will come out and support this latest effort.

Monday, January 8, 7 p.m., Center at Pomfret
Snow date: Tuesday, January 9, 7 p.m.

The state birding community will be called on to conduct surveys for the Connecticut Bird Atlas Project, which gets underway in 2018. The project will focus on all birds that breed, winter or migrate in Connecticut. The Bird Atlas project is also the subject on our upcoming Connecticut State of the Birds report, to be released on December 1.

The goals of the project are to provide information on bird habitats that can then be used to guide conservation and development decisions, and to contribute meaningful data for the state’s Wildlife Action Plan.

The scope of the atlas is to understand breeding bird distribution and abundance; to document changes since the last atlas in the mid 1980s; to understand wintering distribution of the birds in the state; to identify stopover habitat during migrations; to establish predictive relationships where species occur on the landscape; and to use the results and data to create an interactive website. 

The last atlas was published in 1994, based on data collected after years of surveys from 1982 to 1986. This effort was supported by many NHBC members. We hope the members can come out again to support the new effort.

Min Huang is a wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and heads the Migratory Bird Program for the State.  Min received a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Conservation and a Bachelor of Art in English from the University of Connecticut and received his Master of Science in Wildlife Management from Frostburg State University.  He received his Ph. D from the University of Connecticut, researching sub-population structure and survival of resident Canada geese.  He has worked as a wildlife biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission where he managed a wildlife management area, working primarily with deer and various endangered species such as the Florida grasshopper sparrow, red-cockaded woodpecker, Florida scrub jay, and whooping crane.  He also spent 5 years working for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as a District Biologist, where he primarily worked with ungulates and endangered species such as the spotted owl and marbled murrelet.  Current projects he is involved with include nesting success of forest interior songbirds, chimney swift survival and nesting ecology, ruffed grouse habitat use and survival, American kestrel survival, dispersal and migratory stopover habitat use, purple martin survival and dispersal, and multi-stock harvest management of waterfowl.

Cost: FREE