Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative

05/12/2026

Calling birders in Vermont to help collect data for the Golden-chain Collaborative!

Help Audubon learn more about Golden-winged Warblers and their habitat needs!

Audubon Vermont has been working with Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative and area land trusts, including Vermont Land Trust, Middlebury Area Land Trust & Trail Around Middlebury, and The Nature Conservancy in Vermont to create a “ golden chain” of land trust properties managed for Golden-winged Warblers in the Champlain Valley.

We need birders to share sightings of Golden-winged Warblers, Blue-winged Warblers, and their hybrids with our "Golden-chain" eBird account! We are looking for submissions from across Vermont but have a particular interest in sightings in the Champlain Valley. Upload pictures with your submissions if you have them!

The data from this eBird group will help us learn more about winged-warbler habitat use and inform future conservation projects!

Golden-winged Warbler. Photo: Lance Leonhardt/Audubon Photography Awards

05/08/2026

Tomorrow is Big Day! This year, partners from Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy will be joining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Team Sapsucker in their quest to find as many bird species as possible during the 24-hour birding marathon.

Read more here: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/landtrust/land-trust-partners-join-team-sapsucker-on-big-day-in-appalachia/

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

The Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative equips land trusts with bird data, tools, and resources to advance private land conservation, demonstrates how birds are useful when making decisions about conservation investments, fosters partnerships and builds capacity to reach diverse audiences, and accelerates stewardship on land trust properties and easements.

Learn more at birdtrust.org

05/06/2026

The Land Trust Alliance (LTA) is a nonprofit organization that educates, advocates for, and provides accreditation to hundreds of land trusts across the country. Through our collaboration and partnership with LTA, we connect with and support land trusts in their efforts to protect bird habitat on private lands and for birds to help support land trust planning and stewardship efforts.

Visit LTA’s website to find a land trust near you: https://landtrustalliance.org/land-trusts

📷: Abby Church, Mississippi Valley Conservancy

05/06/2026

One objective of the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative is to provide funding to facilitate high priority, bird-focused conservation projects. Our small grant program funds up to 14 projects each year via two grant tracks: Capacity and Partnership Projects (6 grants of $10,000 each) and Management and Restoration Projects (8 grants of $25,000 each).

Our small grant RFP opens in January, with proposals due March 1. Learn more here: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/landtrust/grant-directory/

📷: Becky Keller, Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture

05/06/2026

At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, we believe land trusts can help birds, and birds can benefit land trusts. Since 2017, the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative has awarded more than $1.8M in small grant funding to over 100 bird conservation projects across the country.

Explore our success stories to read about some of these projects: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/landtrust/success-stories/

05/06/2026

Research published in Science in 2019 finds a net population loss of almost three billion birds since 1970, with habitat loss as a leading driver of these declines. Land trusts protect over 60 million acres of private land in the U.S., providing an ideal mechanism for conserving and stewarding our nation’s privately-owned ecosystems to increase biodiversity and limit bird declines on private lands.

Learn more about the study and how to : 3billionbirds.org