The Urban Rusties of Athens
Patti Newell, Ph.D student at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, will present new insights about the Rusty Blackbird at the January 5th meeting of the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society. This bird is now recognized as the fastest declining songbird species in North America. What is causing the decline? Evidence points to the modification and loss of high quality habitats on the wintering ground.
Rusty Blackbirds seem to require a specific arrangement of wetlands where they forage on invertebrates and sources of tree mast such as small seeded acorns (willow oak and water oak) and pecans.
In Athens we have our own wintering flock of urban Rusty Blackbirds. Patti will discuss the Athens area flock that she is studying and the results from her telemetry work with this flock. Also, she will discuss how the birds move over the Athens area landscape between pecan groves and wetlands and some of the mechanisms driving this movement.
The Audubon meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the ENSAT Building at Sandy Creek Nature Center.
For additional information, contact president@oconeeriversaudubon.org
or call the nature center at 706-613-3615
