Art News

New study identifies pine bush as "Stop Over" for migrating birds

ALBANY, N.Y.- Documenting the first study of its kind, a New York State Museum scientist has co-authored a new article that describes the diversity of bird species that pass through the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, an important fall migration “stop-over” for birds that breed hundreds of miles away. This is the first known study of migratory “stop-over” in a rare pine barrens ecosystem like the one found in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. The study also is among the first to use isotope measurements from feathers to estimate the breeding-site origin of migrating birds in eastern North America. The results indicate that some individuals passing through the Pine Bush bred as close as the Adirondacks, but that over half of the birds had breeding localities more than 470 miles northwest of the Pine Bush. Many birds, including all of the captured Blackpoll Warblers, originated over 940 miles away. Dr. Jere