This is Bird No.

For many species of birds, scientists know more about the males than the females.

And that's a problem when making a conservation plan for a species that maps out which habitats

to protect.

Joanna Wu, a PhD student at UCLA, says that in some species of warblers, males and females

live in completely different habitats during the winter.

So if you are accidentally leaving out up to half of the species in conservation plans,

you are obviously not going to capture the full range of what the species needs.

Joanna hopes to study how to better incorporate female birds into conservation efforts.

I'm also interested in looking at whether climate change is going to affect female birds

and males differently. It's kind of unknown whether half the population will have different

threats based on that than the rest of the birds.

It takes very close observation to figure out differences in female and male habitat use.

These questions are worth pursuing because they could tell us how to support female birds

and ensure that the whole species is protected. Joanna says,

I hope to bring these questions more to the forefront so they can continue to be

investigated scientifically in the birding world everywhere.

Learn more about efforts to better understand female bird ecology on our website, birdnote.org.

I'm Ariana Remmel.