BLACKSBURG, Va. – For more than a decade, hundreds of volunteers, scientists and conservationists across Virginia have worked together to document the commonwealth’s bird life, according to Virginia Tech officials.
Their shared effort comes to life with the release of the Second Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas, an online resource that provides an in-depth look at where birds breed, how populations have shifted and what those trends mean for conservation.
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“Theatlaswebsite is unique in providing an online, one-stop shop forVirginia-specific information on all our breedingbirdspecies,” said Sergio Harding, a nongamebirdconservation biologist with theVirginiaDepartment of Wildlife Resources. “It is ultimately a multi-use conservation tool intended to inform planning, education and outreach, research, habitat management and even land acquisition.”
“This was truly one of the best team efforts I’ve ever been part of,” said Dixie Sommers, a VirginiaSociety of Ornithology board member who helped lead the project’s publication. “Everyone, from the volunteers and field teams to the technical experts, carried their weight. It was a 10-year endeavor, and every piece of it was done with commitment and collaboration.”
“It’s impossible to get a statewide snapshot like this without hundreds of people on the ground working together,” he said. “Theatlasis useful to anyone interested inVirginia’s natural heritage, frombirders to land managers, because it shows where species are found, how populations are changing, and how we can better protect them.”
Unlike many similar efforts in other states, Virginia’s atlas is fully digital.
“We wanted something people could actually use,” Sommers said. “Otheratlases are often printed books, beautiful but expensive and bulky. Putting ours online means anyone can access it and use it for conservation, education, or enjoyment.”
The Virginia Society of Ornithology raised more than $300,000 to fund the digital publication, while the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources supported fieldwork and data analysis. For VirginiaTech, the project represents the land-grant mission in action: connecting research with communities and empowering Virginians to act as stewards of their environment.
You can explore the book here.