FROM FINCHES TO THE LAUNCHING OF THE FINCH RESEARCH NETWORK

Birders’ Night, Thursday August 05, 2021

Please note: SPECIAL TIME of 6:30pm, not the usual 7:30pm.

About the presentation: Many area birders were fortunate and delighted to observe Common Redpolls, as well as other winter finches this past winter season; colorful visitors from the north. In this program, from last year’s Superflight of Redpolls to Evening Grosbeaks, to the distribution and ecology of different Red Crossbill flight calls, Matthew Young, President and Founder of the Finch Research Network, will talk about these interesting and beautiful winter finches and what led to the formation of the Finch Research Network (finchnetwork.org). He’ll focus on BC as much as possible, but has kindly agreed to do this on very short notice.

About the presenter: Matt has been observing and enjoying nature since a very young age. He’s lived in Central New York the past 24 years and it was during this time when he really started studying everything from birds to orchids, and bogs and fens. Matt received his B.S. in Water Resources with a minor in Meteorology from SUNY-Oneonta and his M.S. in Ornithology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry/Syracuse University in 2003. He did his masters research on avian diversity in restored wetlands of central New York at the Great Swamp Conservancy. He was a Regional Editor of the Kingbird for 10 years, the state ornithological journal in New York, was an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Studies at SUNY-Cortland, and currently teaches an Intro to Birding class for Cornell University and is the Board Chair at The Wetland Trust.

He worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology across 15+ years, including project lead on the lab’s first Finch Irruptive Bird Survey for Bird Source in 1999. He was the Collections Management Leader/Audio Engineer at the Macaulay Library ~12 years, including the lead audio engineer on guides, the Songs of the Warblers of North America, Audubon Society Voices of Hawaii’s Birds, and the Cornell Lab’s Guides to Bird Sounds, the North America Master and Essential Sets. He’s written finch species accounts for breeding bird atlases and Birds of the World and has published several papers about the Red Crossbill vocal complex.

This presentation will be aired via Zoom Video Conferencing. On the Monday preceding the event, Nature Vancouver members will receive the Zoom link in the weekly e-News. To join the talk on Thursday, click on that link after 6:15 pm. The talk will begin at 6:30 pm. Non-members are welcome and should Email Denis@NatureVancouver.ca well in advance to register for the link.