Modern day ‘bird seers’ track environmental health at longest running avian field station

IN ANCIENT ROME “bird seers” were priests, or augurs, who delivered prophecies based on their observations of birds. The right combination of bird behaviors augured favorable conditions, but the wrong patterns spelled trouble.

Today, spanning nearly 60 years, in partnership with the Point Reyes National Seashore within its southern border, generations of modern-day bird seers have been banding birds, collecting an extensive dataset to track changes in bird populations as an indicator of environmental health. Near the northern California hamlet of Bolinas, avian ecologists at the Palomarin Field Station, run by Point Blue Conservation Science, are studying the interrelationship of birds and their habitats, and training early-career scientists in the practice of bird banding and other field techniques.