CONSERVATION CORNER

Return of WRWA

October 22, 2026

The Williams Avian Ecology Lab initially banded and color-banded this Slate-colored Junco on February 18, 2023, as a second-year bird with the color band WRWA. Exactly one year later, on February 18, 2024, he was recaptured and nanotagged. This morning, we captured him again and removed his nanotag, marking his third known return!

Slate-colored Junco with WRWA color band and nanotag

CONSERVATION CORNER

Ornithology Banding

October 22, 2026

This Wednesday and Thursday, Ornithology classes and the Williams Avian Ecology Lab banded 37 birds and processed 17 recaptured birds, representing 19 different species!

Species Caught:

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Goldfinch
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Phoebe
Slate-colored Junco
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
House Finch
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Blue Jay
Red-bellied Woodpecker

CONSERVATION CORNER

Fourth Consecutive Return of YMYA

January 16, 2026

The Williams Avian Ecology Lab banded and nanotagged this Dark-eyed Junco on January 21, 2023, with nanotag 69 and color band YMYA. At that time, he was recorded as a second-year bird.

We recaptured him today, making this his fourth consecutive winter returning to our field site!

CONSERVATION CORNER

Elizabeth Savitski is Awarded a PURF to Conduct Research for her Senior Thesis\

December 30, 2025

In November 2025, Elizabeth (Biz) Savitski received the Provost Undergraduate Research Funds (PURF) to conduct research for her senior thesis. She will be examining the relationship between habitat structure, composition, temperature, and overwintering grassland bird communities. She will conduct habitat assessments and avian line transects across five study sites in Ohio and Indiana. Travel funds and lab equipment will be made available due to the PURF.

CONSERVATION CORNER

Bird Window Collisions

November 23, 2025

The Williams Avian Ecology Lab conducts a bird window collision monitoring program at Ohio University’s Athens campus. The lab walked a route of 17 buildings on campus daily and searched the perimeter of each building for dead birds or evidence of bird window collisions. Collected birds are turned into study skins for Ohio University’s Ornithology class and kept in the Museum of Zoology. Since starting the program in the fall of 2023, we have recovered 75 bird carcasses across 15 different families. During our fall semesters, we recovered 56 birds, and during the spring semesters, we recovered 19 birds. Heritage Hall has the most bird-window collisions out of the 17 buildings surveyed. We will continue our study into next semester. Our work brings awareness to bird window collisions at our university and highlights the steps individuals can take to mitigate bird window collisions at small and large scales.

Study skins created from our window collision monitoring program

Gray Catbird collision with window of Heritage Hall at Ohio University

CONSERVATION CORNER

Banding Recap

October 5, 2025

The Williams Lab had a successful banding day on Saturday, October 4! This misty morning brought in 17 total birds from 10 different species. Of those, 13 were newly banded, while four of them were recaptures from previous banding dates.

This weekend served as valuable training for our undergraduate students, who gained hands-on experience scribing, banding, and extracting birds from nets! We also hosted 2 student visitors.