The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: PhD candidate in Sustainable Forest Management, Oregon State University

Assessment of Potential Food Availability for Breeding Black-Backed Woodpeckers in Unburned Forests

Kerstens’s study will provide valuable information about the constraints on woodpecker populations as an indicator of forest health.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: master’s student, Biology, University of North Texas

Winter Habitat Utilization of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) in North Texas

Prater will study the home range and roosting habits of the declining kestrel population. Results will help strategize conservation efforts.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: master’s student, Biology, East Carolina University

King rail (Rallus elegans) Habitat Use in Tidal and Impounded Managed Wetlands of Coastal Carolina

Linke’s research on the habits of this secretive species will aid understanding of king rail range and habits and guide future management of the wetland refuge.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: master’s student, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, The University of Maine

Early-Life Habitat Selection and Survival in Hybridizing Vermivora Warblers

Ongman’s study, which will use modern tracking technologies to study the hybridization and breeding of warblers, will inform the Endangered Species Act review and contribute to future habitat management guidelines.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: Master’s student, Natural Resources and Forestry, University of Georgia

Linking Avian Demography to Plant Communities Through Fine-Scale Space Use

To halt the rapid decline of migratory birds, Klement seeks to understand which plants provide high-quality avian habitats and should be actively targeted in conservation efforts. Research will use new tracking technologies and corresponding space-use estimates to accurately quantify habitat quality for painted buntings, a declining neotropical migratory bird. By identifying which plant species provide preferred habitat during breeding season, Klement’s project will determine how ecological restoration efforts can utilize fine-scale space-use data to restore specific plants associated with habitat quality for other bird species.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: PhD candidate in Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech

Understanding the Role of Acoustic Signals for Assessing Predator Risk in an Understudied Southern Population of Saltmarsh Sparrows

To prevent further population decline of native-bird habitat, Re aspires to better understand predator risk assessment and how it relates to the implementation of effective management strategies. Re will focus on the saltmarsh sparrow, a tidal marsh obligate songbird endemic to the narrow Atlantic coastal strip from Maine to Florida. Re will focus on low reproductive success and the loss of high marsh nesting habitat, two threats facing the species.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: PhD candidate in Biology, Tufts University

Behavioral Interactions Between Hemiboreal Setophaga Warblers and their Implications for Species-Specific Habitat Selection

Using playback experiments, Levy will test a behavioral interaction between three hemiboreal Setophaga warblers that has been hypothesized to influence species-specific habitat selection. Together with surveys of bird population densities and forest vegetation from 1992–93 and 2021–22, the experiments will allow Levy to explore the role of interspecies interactions in habitat selection within the broader context of landscape-scale change in forest structure and avian assemblage composition.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat

Effects of Land Management on Breeding Success, Dispersal, and Population Genetics of a Threatened Freshwater Marsh Bird, the King Rail

Gause’s research will investigate the breeding success and population genetics of the king rail, a threatened freshwater marsh bird whose species has been declining throughout its range for over 50 years. Gause will contribute to a long-term king-rail monitoring project at Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge and will collaborate with researchers across the eastern United States to compare king-rail populations using next-generation sequencing.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat

Restoring Climate-Resilient Bird Habitat by Harnessing Local Plant Evolutionary Potential

Rosenblad’s project will explore the physiology, ecology, and evolution of Lemmon’s willow, a shrub that is planted in the restoration of Sierra Nevada meadows and forms a critical breeding and migration habitat for vulnerable and declining bird species. By investigating drought tolerance, Rosenblad will identify factors that shape the shrub’s genetic variation in resistance to drought. This research will help restoration practitioners restore a bird habitat that will be resilient to climate change.

The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
School: Master’s student, School of Forest Resources, University of Maine

Assessing the Long-term Effects of an Expanding Gap Silvicultural System on the Avian Assemblage at the Acadian Forest Ecosystem Research Program 

Pohlman’s research focuses on understanding how bird communities respond to an experimental forest harvest method based on the natural disturbance regime of the local forest; it aims to mimic natural processes such as tree mortality and changing forest structure. His work is conducted at the Penobscot Experimental Forest, located in Bradley and Eddington, Maine.