Birding Festival 2023

The main festival weekend is April 27 - 30, but expect some events the weekend before and after!

Speakers for 2023

John Marzluff is James W. Ridgeway Professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington.  His graduate (Northern Arizona University) and initial post-doctoral (University of Vermont) research focused on the social behavior and ecology of jays and ravens.  He continues this theme investigating the intriguing behavior of crows, ravens, and jays.  His current research focuses on the interactions of ravens and wolves in Yellowstone. He teaches Ornithology, Governance and Conservation of Rare Species, Field Research in Yellowstone, and Natural and Cultural History of Costa Rica.

Professor Marzluff has written six books and edited several others. His Welcome to Subirdia (2014 Yale) discovers that moderately settled lands host a splendid array of biological diversity and suggests ways in which people can steward these riches to benefit birds and themselves.  His most recent In Search of Meadowlarks (2020 Yale) connects our agriculture and diets to the conservation of birds and other wildlife.

Dr. Marzluff has mentored over 40 graduate students and authored over 170 scientific papers on various aspects of bird behavior and wildlife management. He is a member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Recovery Team for the critically endangered Mariana Crow, a former member of the Washington Biodiversity Council, a Fellow of the American Ornithologist's Union, and a National Geographic Explorer.

THINK LIKE A RAVEN is a culmination of my collaborative work detailing the intertwined lives of ravens, wolves, pumas, and the people that visit and live around Yellowstone.  The talk’s arc follows the seasons of Yellowstone and the scientific journey I undertook to decode the mysteries of raven life.  With colleagues, we tagged 60 birds with state-of-the-art transmitters. The birds shared their secrets as they flew a hundred miles directly to new kills, commandeered territory, found mates, and reared young.  The picture that emerged from our study was that of a highly opportunistic bird with the knowledge that allowed them to exploit wolves but not depend on them. What emerges is a picture of the tenuous and evolving relationship between humans, wolves, and ravens, and the challenges animals face when they wander beyond the protection a national park provides.