“Birds Wintering in Urban Landscapes” focuses on how urban Puget Sound supports the songbirds that spend the winter here. For which species is the urban winter habitat important? What breeding populations are represented? How do wintering birds use the urban landscape? What role do backyards, parks, and invasive plants play?
We are initiating this project by color-banding Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos and Fox Sparrows in backyards and parks in several study sites around greater Seattle. Beyond clarifying answers to some of these questions about the birds, this project will, in the long run:
Photo by Christine Southwick
- Enroll yard owners with registered backyard wildlife habitat as hosts for banding sites.
- Mobilize citizen scientists as bird-banders and spokespersons.
- Have native plant landscapers document birds’ use of fruits and berries in their yards.
- Reach out to the public through Seattle Audubon youth.
- Involve school kids sighting and reporting color-banded birds.
- Illustrate to residents how birds live in and use their neighborhoods and yards.
Interested in volunteering? We need banders and scribes on weekend mornings from mid-October through April; and bird sighters year-round.
The Birds Wintering in Urban Landscapes project is made possible by a partnership of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory, the Shoreline Community Wildlife Habitat Project, and the Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation.
