WOS Monthly Meeting December 2, 2024 online only via Zoom Tom Bancroft on Raptors: Pondering their Evolution and Adaptations Today, we think of raptors as carnivorous birds with hooked beaks and talons, but that definition has changed in the last 50 years. And not all birds we call raptors fit...

WOS Monthly Meeting Monday, January 6, 2024 (Online only via Zoom) Josh Morris will speak on THUD: What birders need to know (and do) about window collisions Globally, billions of birds are killed each year after colliding with windows. Seattle's built environment contributes to the carnage, killing up to 80,000...

Sarah Sloane on DNA, Kinship and Competition: Unraveling the Complex Social Web of Bushtits" The Bushtit is a common nonmigratory species known for its cooperative breeding and intricate social dynamics. In this talk, Sarah Sloane will share insights, showcasing a range of fascinating behaviors. These include how young from the...

Healthy seabird populations are an indicator of a healthy ocean. Unfortunately, many of our seabird populations are imperiled and in need of conservation action. Among those monitoring seabird species and assessing population trends is the Puget Sound Seabird Survey (PSSS). However, the collection of data is only the first step...

Kim Marie Thorburn on Biodiversity Conservation and the Endangered Species Act" At 50 years+, the Endangered Species Act is considered one of our most successful conservation policies. More than 200 species’ extinctions have been prevented to date: which is 99% of all species listed as endangered. Yet, as the earth...

May 5, 2025 Monthly Meeting: Chris Anderson on Common Loon Management in Washington State. Factoid: Washington may be the only state in which Common Loons are known to overwinter on both salt and fresh water. The Common Loon (Gavia immer) was known to be a fairly common breeding species both...

Is our fascination and engagement with wildlife fueled more by familiarity with the individual or the entire species? How about both? Our opening Monthly Meeting of the season explores how one determined wildlife field biologist and a single Bald Eagle's uniqueness brought a community together, solved a mystery and ultimately...

The Washington Ornithological Society (WOS) is pleased to announce our next Monthly Meeting: on Monday, November 3, Ashley Martens will present "Birds of Washington's Old Growth Forests.” All forest stages have an important ecological role to play. The old-growth stage of a forest is especially important because of its unique...

The tiny, narrow-winged Vaux’s Swift is found only in the western hemisphere. In the words of Mr. Swift - Schwitters, our speaker, “Because of its anatomy, a swift is unable to perch and so needs a rough, vertical surface to hook its claws into; it then puts its tail down...