Cooperative Agreement W9132T1020048

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) was awarded $370,277 under the State Wildlife Grants program (CFDA 15.634) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 8 to support conservation of the Tricolored Blackbird in southern California from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026. CDFW will lead surveys to identify new breeding colony locations, especially on non-conserved lands, and conduct focused studies at two key colonies to quantify movements and foraging requirements and identify...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awarded a $300,000 Cooperative Agreement to Texas A&M AgriLife Research under the Threatened and Endangered Species (CFDA 15.246) program. The goal of the project is to determine the presence, habitat selection, and density of common ravens in relation to anthropogenic structures and subsidies within the range of the endangered Gunnison's sage-grouse. The researchers plan to establish 150-180 point-count locations through selected Gunnison's sage-grouse...

This National Science Foundation project grant award of $240,000 provides funding from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026 to investigate environmental and genomic regulation of molt in birds. The award is made under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to support basic biological research that strengthens the Nation's scientific enterprise. The grantee will conduct integrative research to understand the interactions between genomes, environment, and phenotypes that govern molting...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Migratory Bird Monitoring, Assessment and Conservation program (CFDA 15.655) will fund research by SUL Ross State University to assess the suitability of livestock tanks and ephemeral ponds as habitat for migratory and wintering grassland birds in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. The $176,785 award will support the use of automated recording units, point counts, and GPS tracking of...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Migratory Bird Monitoring, Assessment and Conservation program (CFDA 15.655) provides $202,747 to the University of Connecticut to support the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program (SHARP). The project will track and analyze population changes in saltmarsh sparrows and other tidal marsh birds, which have experienced substantial declines in recent decades due to factors like sea-level rise and upland...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) project grant, awarded to Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) for $421,043, aims to advance the understanding of neural mechanisms that allow wild songbirds to adapt their behavior to urban environments. The research will leverage brain transcriptomics and gene manipulation tools to characterize differences in brain gene networks associated with behavioral adjustments in urban male song...

This $916,173 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology (CFDA 47.074 - Biological Sciences) aims to develop a user-friendly conservation tool to help land managers prioritize actions to restore declining grassland bird populations across North America. The project will collect data on migratory patterns, genetic health, and reproductive output of three grassland bird species to build a genomically-informed, full annual cycle, integrated...

The University of Saskatchewan received a $169,683 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures program (CFDA 15.637). The award will fund a 3-year effort to explore black duck breeding biology and habitat use to benefit existing work on black ducks throughout their annual cycle. Key objectives include deploying 104 GPS tracking devices on black ducks, adapting machine learning algorithms to identify breeding and...

This $305,237 Formula Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service under the State Wildlife Grants (CFDA 15.634) program supports a 3-year study on the status and ecology of three state-threatened raptor species in Texas: the zone-tailed hawk, gray hawk, and common black hawk. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the state agency responsible for conserving Texas' natural resources, is the prime recipient for this award. The project will conduct...

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 awarded a $549,164 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Minnesota under the Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance program (CFDA 15.608) to conduct a study on bird community changes in the St. Louis River Estuary (SLRE). The goal is to determine how recent remediation and restoration efforts in the heavily degraded SLRE have improved breeding habitat conditions for wetland-dependent birds at both the site and...