Feathers in Flight: The Bird Genoscape Project

If we don’t know where migratory birds spend the winter or how they get there, how can we protect them? Biologist Mary Whitfield of the Southern Sierra Research Station has spent two decades studying one of North America’s rarest birds: the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. To help the flycatchers, Mary has joined a cutting-edge effort called the Bird Genoscape Project (BGP), conducting genome research on individual feathers to connect breeding and wintering populations of the same species and provide critical information to conservationists and managers.