Why Study Raptors?

BRI studies raptors to aid in their conservation and the protection of the habitats and ecosystems in which they reside. Raptors play key ecological roles in the systems in which they feed, therefore an understanding of raptor ecology is an important way of understanding our environment. The history of the catastrophic decline and subsequent recovery in several raptors such as the Bald Eagle, Osprey, and the Peregrine Falcon, are intertwined with the enactment of some of the most important and consequential environmental policies in U.S. history such as the Endangered Species Act, the ban on DDT pesticides and the Clean Water Act.

BRI’s raptor research focuses on informing the management and conservation needs of raptors. Our research emphasizes three nonexclusive areas: (1) contaminants monitoring; (2) movement studies; and (3) population monitoring.

Program Director:

Contributing Staff:

Highlighted Raptors We Study

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Merlin

American Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

Osprey

Raptor Research at BRI

Contaminants Monitoring

BRI biologist sample raptors to help evaluate the potential for reproductive or behavioral impacts due to contaminant exposure.

Movement and Tracking Studies

We gather information on raptor movements primarily through the banding and tracking of captured individuals

Inventory and Population Studies

We survey raptor populations to document the number of individuals, breeding pairs, nonbreeding pairs, nests, and young produced in an area.

Publications

BRI researchers have joined scientists around the world in a landmark study published in the journal Science that uses three decades of animal tracking data to gather insights about animal responses to changing environmental conditions in the Arctic. The study, titled Ecological insights from three decades of animal movement tracking across a changing Arctic, utilizes and broadly introduces the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA). The AAMA is an active collection of tracking datasets from researchers across the globe for marine and terrestrial animals in the arctic.