BIRDS WITHOUT BORDERS - AVES SIN FRONTERAS®
A PROJECT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF MILWAUKEE AND
THE FOUNDATION FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION, INC.

Birds Without Borders - Aves sin Fronteras

UPDATED January 2007: The Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® Recommendations for Landowners: How to Manage Your Land to Help Birds (Belize and Mesoamerica edition) is now available. Click here for more information.

(To contact us directly, please see contact information at the bottom of this page.)

Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras is a multi-year research, conservation and education project coordinated by the Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM) in cooperation with the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc. (FWC), and private landowners. Dr. Gil Boese, president of the FWC and president emeritus of the ZSM, initiated the project in 1996 to study migratory and resident bird species in Wisconsin, USA, and Belize, Central America.

Wisconsin and Belize share 114 species of migratory birds, 80 of which are common in both places. These birds are members of a group called Neotropical migrants, birds that spend their non-breeding season (September through April) south of the Tropic of Cancer. Research has documented that some Neotropical migrant birds have been decreasing since 1978. This decline is most likely due to dramatic changes in habitat on both their breeding and wintering grounds. The decline of birds is of concern since birds play a major role in controlling insects in our ecosystem. Also, many people appreciate birds for their beauty and their songs.

CONSERVATION
Birds Without Borders-Aves Sin Fronteras is unusual because all research is being conducted on privately owned lands in Wisconsin and Belize. More than 50 private landowners have generously allowed us to use their land for this important research. These privately owned lands are serving as models of habitat management for birds. Based on our research findings, we are compiling manuals of land-management techniques that benefit birds for interested landowners. We have completed our manual of recommendations for landowners based on the Belize research. Click here to learn more about The Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® Recommendations for Landowners: How to Manage Your Land to Help Birds (Belize and Mesoamerica edition). Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras is demonstrating the impact that one landowner or group of individual landowners working together can have on conservation.

RESEARCH
We conducted research on both migratory and resident birds for six months each year in both Wisconsin and Belize. Wisconsin research included the study of birds during spring and fall migration and the breeding season. In Belize, our all-Belizean staff studied migratory birds on their wintering grounds. During the breeding season, research focused on some of Belize's 370 species of resident birds.

Five years of Wisconsin research was successfully completed in October 2001, and five years of Belize research was successfully completed in September 2002. We are now focusing on data analysis and land-stewardship recommendations. Because there is still so much to learn in Belize, we continued bird banding and censusing at the Runaway Creek Nature Preserve and the Chaa Creek study sites through 2004. To maintain a long-term data set, the BWB-ASF staff is continuing bird banding and censusing during the non-breeding season as well as year-round ecological assessments at the Runaway Creek Nature Preserve. Click here to link to some of our research results.

Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® staff members have presented results of project research at scientific meetings and published papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. PDFs of the publications (full text) and presentations (abstracts) can be read and downloaded. Click here to link to the Presentations and Publications list.

We have summarized our Belize research results and produced a manual of recommendations for landowners on how they can manage their land to benefit birds. This manual includes many photos of birds and plants found in Belize. We have begun distributing the manual to interested landowners, and you can download it free of charge from the Zoological Society's Web site by clicking here.

In addition, Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® research results are summarized and distributed to landowners and interested persons through yearly updates. Please contact BWB-ASF International Coordinator Vicki Piaskowski or Belize National Coordinator Mario Teul to receive these updates and to be added to our mailing list. The updates can be found on our Publications and Presentations Web page.

STUDY SITES
Our Wisconsin study sites - located near Land O' Lakes in the far north, Rosendale in east-central Wisconsin and Pewaukee in southeastern Wisconsin - encompass 2,000 acres of land and provide the opportunity to study bird use of a variety of habitats. These include northern coniferous bog forests, re-vegetating forest clearcuts, grasslands, wetlands and small suburban deciduous forests.

Our Belize study sites are located at the Tropical Education Center of the Belize Zoo and at Chaa Creek Nature Preserve and adjacent privately owned lands. In 2000, the 6,009-acre Runaway Creek Nature Preserve owned by the ZSM's sister organization, the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc., was added as our third Belize study site. We study birds in habitats represented throughout Belize, including pine savanna (broken ridge), broadleaf deciduous forests, riverine and karst hill forests, citrus and cashew plantations, and pasture.

EDUCATION
Educational outreach programs including lectures and bird-banding demonstrations are presented to the communities near the study sites. A multi-disciplinary science-education program, coordinated by the Zoological Society's Education Department, began in Wisconsin in 1998 and kicked off in Belize in 2000. This educational component reached more than 3,300 middle and high-school students and 46 teachers in Wisconsin and Belize. Click here to learn more about the Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras education library.

COLLABORATIONS
Our collaborations assure that our findings become part of larger databases and provide for an ongoing exchange of information, methodology and strategy. We have established collaborations with the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Institute for Bird Populations MAPS program, the University of Montana-based BBIRD nest-monitoring project, Partners in Flight (U.S. and Mesoamerican Groups), The Nature Conservancy Latin American Division, the Belize Audubon Society, Programme for Belize, the Belize Biodiversity Initiative, the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation, the Sibun Watershed Association, the Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System of Belize and the Belize Association of Private Protected Areas. We are pursuing and developing additional collaborations in the U.S. and Belize.

The Zoological Society of Milwaukee is an endorser of the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative (WBCI). Click here to learn more about WBCI.

BIRDS WITHOUT BORDERS-AVES SIN FRONTERAS® PARTNERS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you would like more information on Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras, please contact the

International Coordinator:
Vicki Piaskowski
1421 North Water Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
U.S.A.		 Vicki Piaskowski

Or:

Belize National Coordinator:
Mario Teul
P.O. Box 97
Help for Progress Building, Forest Drive
Belmopan City, Cayo District
BELIZE		 Mario Teul

YOUR SUPPORT
Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras is dedicated to saving the birds of the Western Hemisphere and increasing the viability of birds on privately owned lands at all stages of their life cycle. In addition, Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras is involving the next generation in conservation through education about birds and their habitats. Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras needs your contributions to ensure the success of this important project.