Powdermill Nature Reserve
HC64, Box 453
Rector, PA 15677-9605
Phone: (724) 593-7521
Fax: (724) 593-6570
Email: rcleberm@winbeam.com

General Background:

I started the Museum's bird-banding program in 1961 at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History's 2,200-acre field research station in the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. As one of the first professional nongame bird banders in the United States, I employed the then comparatively new technique of catching songbirds using small mesh Japanese mist nets.

The banding program at Powdermill quickly became one of the largest and best known in North America. With help from a string of dedicated volunteers, and from my associate, Robert Mulvihill, who began as a volunteer in 1978 and joined the staff in 1983, I have banded an average of about 10,000 birds annually over the course of the program's 38-year history. In addition, I record several thousand recaptures of previously banded birds each year. CMNH's Powdermill 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 me or by my associate, Powdermill's large bird-banding database may well be the most internally consistent of its kind.

Research Interests (number correspond to references below):

• Distribution of the Birds of Pennsylvania ^{1, 8, 9, 10}
• Distribution of the Birds of Belize ^{18, 19}
• Bird-banding Techniques ^{3, 5, 6}
• Differential Migration Timing ^{11, 12, 13}
• Patterns and Rates of Skull Pneumatization ⁵
• Avian Body Mass Dynamics ^{2, 4, 7, 14, 15, 16, 20}

References (reprints of many of these are available upon request):

1. Brauning, D. W. (ed.). 1992. Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 528 pp. [Contains 23 species accounts authored by R. C. Leberman].

2. Clench, M. H., & R. C. Leberman. 1978. Weights of 151 species of Pennsylvania birds analyzed by month, age, and sex. Bulletin Carnegie Museum of Natural History no. 5, 87 pp.

3. Heimerdinger, M. A., & R. C. Leberman. 1966. The comparative efficiency of 30 and 36 mm mesh mist nets. Bird-Banding 37:280-285.

4. Leberman, R. C. 1967. The influence of fat on bird weight. EBBA News 30:181-184.

5. Leberman, R. C. 1970. Pattern and timing of skull pneumatization in the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Bird-Banding 41:121-124.

6. Leberman, R. C. 1972. Key to age and sex determination of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in autumn. Inland Bird Banding News 44:197-202.

7. Leberman, R. C. 1973. A study of Tufted Titmouse weights. EBBA News 36:34-38.

8. Leberman, R. C. 1976. Birds of the Ligonier Valley. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication no. 3, 67 pp.

9. Leberman, R. C. 1988. A Field List of the Birds of Western Pennsylvania and Adjacent Regions. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication no. 13, 52 pp.

10. Leberman, R. C. 1992. First verifiable Pennsylvania record of Le Conte's Sparrow, Ammodramus leconteii, Westmoreland County. Pennsylvania Birds 5:157-159.

11. Leberman, R. C., & M. H. Clench. 1969. Bird-banding at Powdermill, 1968. Research Report no. 23, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA [Contains analysis of age-related differential migration for 15 species].

12. Leberman, R. C., & M. H. Clench. 1970. Bird-banding at Powdermill, 1969. Research Report no. 26, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA [Contains analysis of age-related differential migration for an additional 15 species].

13. Leberman, R. C., & M. H. Clench. 1971. Bird-banding at Powdermill, 1970. Research Report no. 28, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA [Contains analysis of sex-related differential migration for 13 species].

14. Leberman, R. C., & M. A. Stern. 1977. Handling induced shock in migrant songbirds. N. Amer. Bird Bander 2:50-54.

15. Mulvihill, R. S., R. C. Leberman, & D. S. Wood. 1992. A possible relationship between reversed sexual size dimorphism and reduced male survivorship in the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). Condor 94:480-489.

16. Mulvihill, R. S., & R. C. Leberman. 1997. Factors affecting the survival of Ovenbirds wintering in the Northeast. Wilson Bulletin 109:161-166.

17. Mulvihill, R. S., K. C. Parkes, R. C. Leberman, & D. S. Wood. 1992. Evidence supporting a dietary basis for orange-tipped rectrices in the Cedar Waxwing. Journal of Field Ornithology 63:212-216.

18. Wood, D. S., & R. C. Leberman. 1987. Results of the Carnegie Museum expeditions to Belize. III. Distributional notes on the birds of Belize. Annals of Carnegie Museum 56:137-160.

19. Wood, D. S., R. C. Leberman, & D. S. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of the Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication no. 12, 24 pp.

20. Mulvihill, R.S., R.C. Leberman, and A.J. Leppold. 2004. Relationships among body mass, fat, wing length, ages, and sex of 170 species of birds banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve. EBBA Mon. No. 1.

Memberships and Professional Service:

• Eastern Bird Banding Association
  Council Member (former)
  Memorial Grant Committee Chairman (former)
  
  
• Appalachian Region Editor North American Birds
  

• Pennsylvania Biological Survey
  Ornithological Technical Committee, Charter Member (former)
  Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee (former)

• American Ornithologists Union
  Elective Member

• Association of Field Ornithologists

• Cooper Ornithological Society

• Wilson Ornithological Society