Science

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Federal, state, tribal, and private land and water managers, as well as conservation organizations, require practical scientific information necessary for making well-informed decisions to recover and protect the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo. When evaluating which actions will benefit the cuckoo, managers require the best scientific information available; however, in many cases, there is a lack of appropriate scientific data and information that cover all management and conservation objectives, are relevant to the specific location in question, and/or are peer-reviewed.

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The Working Group facilitates boots-on-the-ground management and conservation of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo by facilitating a cross-linkage between scientific work completed on the cuckoo and the information needs of the management and conservation communities. Specifically, the Working Group brings together scientists from across the cuckoo’s range to:

1. Identify priority research topics (SEE OUR CURRENT LIST),

2. Promote the development and design of effective methods for cuckoo-related scientific studies,

3. Support implementation and evaluation of sound science that address priority research questions, and

4. Ensure information-sharing by broadly disseminating scientific information on our website and in peer-reviewed and technical publications, informative materials, trainings and workshops, and symposia and Working Group meetings.

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CURRENT & RECENT SCIENCE & MONITORING ACTIONS

AUTOMATED RECORDING UNIT RECORDING OF A CUCKOO CONTACT CALL (C) Nick Beauregard

AUTOMATED RECORDING UNIT INSTALLED IN THE FIELD (C) Nick Beauregard

AUTOMATED RECORDING UNIT (ARU) RESEARCHER MEET & GREET

On 29 September 2022, we held an informal ARU Researcher Meet & Greet where folks involved in acoustic monitoring of cuckoos had an opportunity to introduce themselves and their work, and to discuss the state of the science. The MEETING GOALS were to:

• Foster collaboration among researchers using ARUs to study cuckoos (and their arthropod prey);

• Understand the various methods used for ARU deployment and recording processing;

• Identify advantages and disadvantages of existing protocols;

• Encourage consistency in ARU deployment and acoustic recording processing, where possible;

• Encourage coordinated cuckoo acoustic monitoring and data sharing; and

• Help to advance science on ARU use and applications.

Presentations Available to the Public:

Automated Acoustic Surveys for Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Least Bell’s Vireo along the Sacramento River - 2021 By The Nature Conservancy: Greg Golet & Conservation Metrics, Inc: Zoe Gustafson, Abram B. Fleishman, Matthew McKown

Acoustic Monitoring of Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos in Ventura Co., CA by Linnea Hall & Don Klabunde, WFVZ Bird Museum and Research Center

Finding the Insect in the Forest: Katydids and Artificial Intelligence by Dr. Laurel Symes, K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University

ARU Researcher Meet & Greet - Summary (Presented at the Working Group Fall Meeting on 9 November 2022) by Hira Walker, Coordinator, Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo Working Group

Video Recording of the Discussion Link