Signs of Climate Change in Migrator Songbirds of Pennsylvania

Through the Climate and Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP), Carnegie Museum of Natural History partnered with a rural conservation district and learning researchers at University of Pittsburgh to build a learning network with two regional hubs. Each hub invited community organizations to join and work together to develop strategies to support productive, science- and community-based dialogue among network members and with public audiences. Together, we worked in a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) to enhance climate literacy through a network that bridged urban and rural professionals. This blog post is a product of the RPP that gives locally relevant examples of climate impacts and resilience in a mountainous area in Western Pennsylvania called the Laurel Highlands. Network members described a need to ground their own understanding of climate change in science-based evidence, through examples that could easily connect to the lived experiences of their community stakeholders. This blog post and an accompanying infographic about Wood Thrush migration summarize migratory bird data from the Powdermill Avian Research Center, explains how climate change is impacting bird migration, and makes connections to actions that individuals and communities can take towards climate resilience.