egg collectors

Egg Collectors

EGG COLLECTORS The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology houses collections of eggs, nests and study skins from different collectors, totaling just over four hundred individual collections. Many collectors were museum curators or owners, taxidermists, and experienced biologists whilst some were simply outdoorsman and hobbyists. We are recording countries, states etc. where they lived and collected and years of collecting. Also, we recorded collections from other collectors they owned.…

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Why Are Birds Important?

 Why Are Birds Important? 1.  Birds have great economic and ecological value to society by providing vital Ecosystem Services. Large birds destroy numerous rodent pests that consume human food and spread diseases. Smaller birds consume enormous quantities of insects that attack forest trees, services valued at up to $5000/year/square mile of forest. Smaller birds also…

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Drivers of Bird Declines

A rehabilitated male American Kestrel at Raptor Fest, a wildlife conservation event held by NYC Parks in Central Park. Photograph by Rhododendrites (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_kestrel_(44273).jpg). (https://birdcitywisconsin.org/) THE GREATEST THREAT TO WILD BIRD IS HABITAT LOSS Habitat loss ranks number one among the human-associated threats to wild birds. In Ventura County alone we have lost 85% of our…

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Check our Databases online!

  To search our computerized data electronically, please click here (WFVZ Collections Online) with scans of more than 200,000 original data slips and 85,000 photographs of egg sets, supported by the National Science Foundation! Also, the WFVZ is collaborating with other museums in the U.S. so that our data are available via the Internet. Visit the…

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What is the California Condor Recovery Program?

Photograph by Sheila Sund from Salem, United States (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:California_Condor_(15046439948).jpg) The California Condor Recovery Program (Recovery Program) is a multi-entity effort, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to recover the endangered California Condor. Partners in condor recovery include the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Game and Fish Department,…

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When was the first California condor released into the wild?

California condors #594 & #374 soar overhead together. Photograph by USFWS. From 1987 to 1992, no California condors flew free in the California skies. In 1992 captive-bred condors were released into the wild at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge north of Ventura, with additional captive-reared birds added to the flock each year thereafter.

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How many condor nests are there in southern California?

A California condor protects its chick in a nest cave near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge during the 2008 nesting season. Photograph by Joseph Brandt, found on the USFWS’ Flickr. The number of condor nests in southern California varies each year, however, this year (2015) the population experienced a recording breaking year with 10 wild…

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Where is the nest located and how was the camera installed?

Hutton’s Bowl nest second CondorCam. Photograph by Nadya Seal Faith, found on the USFWS’ Flickr. This California condor nest is located in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Los Padres National Forest, near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in southern California. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and Santa Barbara Zoo staff hiked awkward and heavy camera…

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Live-streaming Condor Nest Cams

(credit: Joseph Brandt/USFWS)    Thursday, May 31, 2018 NOW LIVE: Watch endangered California condor chick in the wild live during record-breaking nesting season on ‘Condor Cam’ FILLMORE, California – People across the world can get up-close-and-personal with an endangered California condor chick in real-time through livestreaming video of a wild nest located near the U.S. Fish…

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From the Executive Director

René Corado (https://heidysandovalruiz.com/?p=2544) Here is a great interview in Spanish with our Collections Manager René Corado about his 30 years working at the WFVZ, our bird conservation project in Guatemala, and the efforts needed to save the Motagua River. The interview was conducted by the Guatemalan journalist Heidy Sandoval, for her blog called Entrevistas de…

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Research Project Updates

Cactus Wren (Photograph by Brent Myers). Last breeding season (April-June), the WFVZ teamed up with Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc. (CEM) and the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) to collect distribution, occupancy, and nesting data on Ventura County’s resident Cactus Wrens (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus), which represent the western-most extension of the species’ range. Surveys of…

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