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 Avian
research at Powdermill was started by Senior Bird Bander Robert
Leberman in 1961. Together with Field Ornithologist Robert
S. Mulvihill and a string of dedicated volunteers,
Powdermill has banded an average of about 10,000 birds
annually over the
course of the program's 47-year history. Powdermill's
bird-banding database currently contains over a half million
records representing almost 200 species. Because virtually
all of these data have been collected either by Robert
Leberman and Robert
Mulvihill, Powdermill's large bird-banding
and recapture database may well be the most internally consistent
of its kind. From this collected data, knowledge has been gained
about longevity in wild bird populations, differences between
sexes and age groups in migration behavior, bird life cycles,
and weight and plumage changes.
A recently published monograph entitled Relationships among
body mass, fat, wing length, age, and sex of 170 species of
birds banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve includes detailed
descriptive and statistical analyses of more than 300,000 original
banding records from Powdermill. This is the most comprehensive
study of its kind ever done and likely will serve as a benchmark
for other such compilations of data in years ahead. The monograph
was compiled by Leberman, Mulvihill, and Adrienne Leppold. For
more information on Bird Banding at Powdermill, visit the Powdermill
Bird Banding Web site, as well as the Web site for
the Second
Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project. You can
learn more about Bird Research at Carnegie Museum of Natural
History by visiting the Web site for the CMNH
Section of Birds. |
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 Staff
from the Powdermill Nature Reserve's Avian Research Center
and its GIS Lab (including Mike Lanzone and Trish Miller,
at left, displaying wingspread of Golden Eagle) are collaborating
with the Conservation and Field Research program at Pittsburgh's
National Aviary, headed up by Dr. Todd Katzner, in order to
monitor the annual migrations of eastern Golden Eagles along
selected ridges in western and central Pennsylvania. The researchers
carefully trap migrating eagles and outfit them with a transmitter,
not unlike a tiny backpack, that will send locational data
via satellite back to the team at regular intervals. In this
way the ornithologists at Powdermill Nature Reserve and the
National Aviary can very precisely and accurately track the
birds' movements and eventually will analyze this information
in relation to many weather and topographic variables.
The ultimate
goal of this collaborative research project, partially funded
by a Pennsylvania State Wildlife Grant, is to gain detailed
information about eagle migration and flight behavior that
will scientifically support specific recommendations on how
to develop wind power in the region in a manner that does
not threaten these majestic birds. Because Pennsylvania is
a major migration corridor for eastern Golden Eagles, the
state has a very significant regional responsibility for their
conservation. Click
here to learn more about the project on the National Aviary
Web site. |
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| Click
on thumbnails for more images: |
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Golden
Eagle |
Dr.
Todd Katzner of Pittsburgh's National Aviary |
Telemetry
device |
Mike
Lanzone releases Golden Eagle |
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 The
2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project, headquartered
at Powdermill Avian Research Center, is a five-year study of
all the bird species that nest in Pennsylvania. Incorporating
data supplied by thousands of volunteers across the state, the
atlas will provide information on the abundance and diversity
of Pennsylvania’s breeding birds, which in turn will direct
how future conservation and land management practices are carried
out. For much more extensive information on the Atlas, please
see the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas Web site, www.pabirdatlas.org.
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 Bob
Mulvihill, the Field Ornithology Projects Coordinator at
the Powdermill Avian Research Center, has been selected
as the 2008 Audubon Society of Western PA W. E. Clyde Todd
Award
winner. This annual award was established in 1971 and is
presented to an individual in recognition of outstanding
effort to further the cause of conservation in the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania. The award is presented at the Audubon
Society's Annual Meeting and Awards Presentation at Beechwood
Farms
Nature Reserve.
Past
awardees include Powdermill’s
Robert C. Leberman in 2004.
To
learn more about Mulvihill and his research, click
here for a bio. |
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 Powdermill
Research Associate Dr. David Norman’s main focus is
working with Bob Mulvihill analyzing twenty years’ data
(more than 5,000 records) on the timing and extent of the
complete prebasic molt for some 50 species. The primary aim
is to produce a monograph which will serve as an important
reference (the first of its kind for North American species)
for bird banders and ornithologists. Data summarization and
analyses will be presented in a standardized format and will
include such difficult-to-obtain information as the range
of dates for molt onset and completion and the molt duration
for populations of these species sampled at Powdermill. For
species with a large sample size, data also will be summarized
and analyzed to express age and sex-related variation and,
in cases where additional datasets are available, geographic
variation. For selected species with especially large sample
sizes, more in-depth studies likely will be done for separate
publication in peer-reviewed journals of ornithology.
Dr. Norman’s
other projects and interests at Powdermill include examining
the stopover ecology of fall migrants, especially fattening
and pre-migratory weight gain, to compare with published data
from other sites (including European sites). The expectation
is that birds at Powdermill, with no significant ecological
barrier before or after their visit, might differ in behavior
from that observed at coastal and island sites, which can
be the birds’ last opportunity to feed before crossing
an ecological barrier, or their first opportunity to feed
after surmounting one.
As well
as these specific projects, Dr. Norman usually spends three
or four weeks resident at Powdermill each fall, assisting
with the banding, demonstrations, and workshops, and interacting
on some aspects of Breeding Bird Atlas methodology, always
bringing a welcome international dimension and conservation
focus to discussions and interactions with PARC staff and
visitors. Click
here to visit Dr. Norman's Web site.
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 An
independent project at Powdermill Avian Research Center is the
production of the six-volume Photographic Guide to Ageing
and Sexing of North American Birds. Powdermill’s Field
Ornithologists Robert Mulvihill and Michael Lanzone are collaborating
on this important addition to scientific literature which promises
to be an essential tool in precise and consistent bird identification
for future researchers. |
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Below
are the coordinates of Powdermill Nature Reserve's Avian
Research Center in map datum WGS84. Follow your GPS device's
instructions to
enter these coordinates for driving
directions.
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Latitude |
Longitude |
| Avian
Research Center: |
40.16363313 |
79.26748042 |
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