The Central Grassland Bird Working Group, hosted by the Central Grasslands Roadmap project, aims to create multi-disciplinary data products and tools to support and inform conservation efforts for grassland birds. Dr. Imtiaz Rangwala (NC CASC Climate Science Lead) is a member of this working group and has participated in past workshops to provide climate science expertise. 

The Q2 2024 newsletter highlights a new interactive bird model, which combines data from the Breeding Bird Survey, eBird, and the Integrated Monitoring of Bird Conservation Regions with data from non-breeding monitoring data sources. This improved model allows users to quantify abundance through spatial variation density, population growth, and movement; it also allows users to compare “spatial variation in population dynamics across both the breeding and non-breeding grounds.” Get in touch with the project team to learn more about modeling and data or accessing the tool. 

The newsletter also outlines several priorities regarding grasslands and grassland bird conservation, and informs about an upcoming Decision Support Tool that will combine land use data and “interactive grassland bird opportunity map scenarios.” The Central Grassland Bird Working Group plans to host focus groups to ensure user needs are met; sign up for the Central Grasslands Roadmap newsletter or check their website for updates. 

Read the Q2 2024 newsletter to learn more about these topics!