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Birds of Jasper Ridge

Diane Hart (Board President, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society), Peter Hart (Board, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Wood Duck, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (Peter Hart)

Summary

The purpose of this project is to document the avifauna of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve with a searchable database of high quality photographs of birds in their natural habitats within the preserve. 

With 195 species recorded in transect surveys, Jasper Ridge includes more than 20 percent of the 900 bird species generally recognized for all of North America north of Mexico.  At least 17 additional species have been recorded in the preserve at various times by reliable observers.  This project aims to photograph them all.  At the close of the first year, the gallery contained about 1,000 photos, representing 108 species from 41 families—more than half the bird species recorded in the preserve. 

The gallery supports the mission of JRBP as a resource for teaching and docent training and as a tool for promoting conservation.  In addition, most of the photos are geo-tagged, making them potentially useful for studies of habitat use and community structure. The high quality of the photographs would allow data extraction on topics such as moult condition, plumage, and diversity. 

The project adheres to and promotes guidelines for ethical photography of birds.