“Gray catbird. Second year. Molt limit present. Unknown sex. Wing 87. Weight 35.”
Newswise — Evan Adams is in his sixth and final hour of identifying and banding birds at BRI’s River Point Bird Observatory. Inside the red barn, he stands next to a workbench, on which sits a pair of binoculars and a worn copy of the book A Field Guide to the Birds of North America, with ADAMS scrawled along the side. With one hand flipping the page of the text, while the other deftly maneuvers a Gray Catbird, the biologist identifies the bird’s age, examines and measures its wing, weighs it on a small digital scale, and affixes a small aluminum band to its leg. He quickly calls out the necessary data, which is written down by Chandra Goetsch, a postdoctoral researcher at BRI. The data collection and banding process lasts only minutes before Evan releases the catbird, who promptly disappears into the trees.
As an ecological modeler and the director of BRI’s Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab, Evan spends much of his time considering innovative ways to analyze large datasets such as the 2023 Maine Bird Atlas, or working with offshore energy wind developers along the Atlantic coast. When he can get into the field, he bands birds at BRI’s birding station in Falmouth, Maine, where he applies an in-depth knowledge of migratory songbirds to data collection.
Despite Evan’s current fascination and skill in identifying and working with a broad array of species, at an early age he displayed no predilection for birds. His grandparents, who enjoyed hiking and wildlife, often mailed him natural history guides, gifting him his first birding book—a golden guide—when he was seven years old. Evan laughs, “Let me tell you, I did not use it for much.” After a summer working at a particle accelerator in high school, and taking several science courses in college, it wasn’t until after Evan explored other fields that he found his way to birds. Evan describes being mystified as a child by his grandmother’s identification skills. “I remember my grandmother used to be identifying birds with me when we went on little walks together. She’d say, so that was a Western meadowlark. And I was like, how do you know these things?!” Now, Evan himself can draw up the names of countless birds at speed based on the brown streak on a chest (Song Sparrow), or a prominent mewing call (Yellow-bellied Sapsucker).
It was through a study abroad trip to Costa Rica that Evan had his first experience working with birds. He describes the opportunity, “Costa Rica is like the size of West Virginia, and it has more bird species than the entire United States. That’s what really got me.” Upon seeing beautifully vibrant Resplendent Quetzals, colorful Macaws, and large spectacular Violet Sabrewing Hummingbirds, Evan knew he wanted to pursue a career related to helping birds. During his doctoral studies, Evan worked part-time with BRI staff, but everything changed in 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. He received a call from BRI’s science director asking him to aid in research efforts there. He moved to a full-time position with the Institute, researching various species, applying his skills to band migratory songbirds, and building the quantitative lab.
Evan dedicates most of his time to the Maine Bird Atlas, a long-term project to gain a better understanding of Maine’s breeding and wintering bird populations, information that will help conservationists, policy makers, and the birding industry of Maine. Evan is currently analyzing five-years’ worth of data collected by citizen scientists in the state of Maine. Working with a team of biologists across several government agencies and nonprofits, the group is carefully considering the best way to compile and share the information for easy access and informed decision making. Evan excitedly describes the opportunities to transform the information in ways to “maximize what we learn from it by taking datasets and turning them into analyses, or maps, or tools.” He adds, “I think there’s a lot of really interesting research questions that we get to answer now.”
Evan is a strong advocate for decreasing the gap between research and practice, seeking ways to transform science into actionable tools and resources that go directly into the hands of decision makers. For Evan, building relevant support tools involves understanding stakeholder needs and constantly asking the question: “Are we doing a good job of making a tool that people can actually use?” He continues to interact with a broad range of stakeholders to design research studies that will help answer pressing manager challenges. “There’s a lot of different ways you can build a research program that can inform decisions, but you have to be building it in collaboration with the decision makers, so that you know that you’re not just answering questions that no one has the ability to do anything about.”
Evan has found a home at BRI, whose mission of advancing environmental research and awareness aligns with his passion to inform bird conservation management and policy. Whether he is working to collect and analyze banding data collected at River Point Bird Observatory, abundance data of migratory and wintering birds for the Maine Bird Atlas, or patterns of wildlife behavior off the Atlantic coast in response to offshore wind energy development, Evan seeks to build channels of communication that improve conservation outcomes for wildlife.
More stories on https://briwildlife.org/bri-blog/.
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