We Need Your Breeding Bird Photos!

Want to see your bird photo in print? We are now seeking bird photographs for all our breeding species, primarily for our hardcover atlas book, but also for a reference gallery on the WSO site. Photos can be submitted through eBird or thorough the WSO submission page. We prefer shots that are high quality and especially those that show breeding behavior.

Female Mountain Bluebird and Male Eastern Bluebird fledge hybrid young! 

The female Mountain Bluebird found by atlaser Ryne Rutherford in Taylor County has paired and fledged young with a male Eastern Bluebird. This is a first record of a Mountain Bluebird breeding in Wisconsin, as they are typically a western species, though we are aware of similar hybrid records from Minnesota, North Dakota, Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba. It's too late to warrant a species account for the atlas, but it will provide an interesting footnote.

What's Happening at Atlas Central Atlas Not-so-Central?

Coordinators Nick and Ryan have made adjustments to work from home, as we're sure many of you have. Yet work continues, currently focused on screening and finalizing the atlas dataset.

Recent updates:

• We are continuing to work to add breeding data to WBBA II graciously shared by other projects, including very comprehensive datasets on species like Whooping Cranes (International Crane Foundation) and Greater Prairie-Chickens (Wisconsin DNR).
• We are nearly finished screening WBBA I data to meet the standards of WBBA II and allow for fair comparisons across the two projects (Thanks Tom Prestby and Aaron Stutz for help).
• We are developing additional tools to visualize and screen WBBA II records (Thanks to Nick Walton).
• We are continuing to screen over 2.2 million records submitted to WBBA II — the most ever gathered for any atlas effort (Thanks to Tom Prestby).

Is This a Golden Eagle on a Nest?

Atlaser Bill Smith reported some interesting observations to us in late 2019. He documented Golden Eagles carrying sticks to, and sitting on a nest in winter! Golden Eagles are not known to summer in Wisconsin, and indeed in spring the birds involved appeared to move on. Checking with experts, we found out that building winter nests is not an uncommon behavior — so it's not codeable, but still quite interesting! Read more here. 

Miss atlasing? Here's a few related activities you could do this year:

• Northland College's LoonWatch program is seeking volunteers for the 2020 Wisconsin Loon Population Survey to be held the morning of July 18 at 258 pre-selected lakes across northern and central Wisconsin. Conducted every 5 years since 1985, the survey's data are used to estimate the number of adult loons and chicks produced, and over time, to determine trends in the state's population of this iconic species.
• An online Chimney Swift survey seeks to identify Wisconsin chimneys providing habitat for this declining species, while a pilot project aims to help Wisconsin homeowners pay for repairs that would preserve chimney habitat.
• The Great Wisconsin Birdathon is nearing its fundraising goal and continues until October 15 (allowing for the first-ever fall birdathons). Start a team or donate today! 
• Though atlas data collection has ended, the atlas community at our Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas Photos & Discussion facebook page is still posting, so share a fun sighting if you've got one. That page is for folks to share their sightings, while our main Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas facebook page is where we broadcast the latest atlasing news.