BLM partners monitor Utah hummingbirds

[Cara J]

Since 2009, the Bureau of Land Management has been working with partners in southern Utah to take on a very big (and in some ways, very small) project. The BLM, Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon National Park and the Hummingbird Monitoring Network have been banding and monitoring hummingbirds to determine strategies for conserving them and their habitat and provide a basis for future research. Since the population status of many hummingbirds is unknown, the effort helps collect local and regional information that can be used on a larger scale. For the BLM, conservation stewardship is an essential part of managing our nation’s public lands. This includes responsibly managing habitat for more than 3,000 species of wildlife — including hummingbirds — dispersed over some of the nation’s most ecologically diverse and unique ecosystems. The Hummingbird Monitoring Network extends across several western states, Canada and Mexico, as well as Central and South America. Partners use monitoring stations to band and study local hummingbirds to gather baseline demographic and ecological data. Hummingbird banding. ©Terry Tolbert/BLM Every two weeks at three stations at the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center, wildlife biologists from the BLM, Forest Service and National Park Service spend five hours after sunrise [...]

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