The San Clemente Island loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus mearnsi) is one of the most endangered avian sub-species in North America. The effective population size peaked in the late 2000s, but in recent years has ranged between 32 and 137 individuals. Nest failure associated with predation events has been considered a major factor inhibiting recovery. The US Navy leads recovery efforts, which includes releasing captive-bred individuals, non-native predator control, and extensive monitoring. To better support this mission, understanding potential impacts of other factors that may be limiting population recovery, such as climate change, changes in breeding habitat composition, fire impacts, and prey availability, are critical in managing this subspecies. Additional investigations are underway to address data gaps as part of an overall recovery management plan. These efforts include conducting a population viability analysis, assessing habitat factors associated with successful nesting, and investigating over-winter survival. We are also investigating the feasibility of evaluating the effects of invasive plant densities on prey abundance and/or availability. In this talk we will discuss our approaches to filling these data gaps, and initial results from some of the tasks already underway.

I am the project manager for the Institute for Wildlife Studies’ Shrike Monitoring and Release Program, which monitors the wild population of endangered San Clemente Loggerhead Shrikes and coordinates with other partners to release captive-bred shrikes into the population. Over the last decade, my career focus has been in avian conservation, particularly breeding biology and population monitoring. While originally from rural Illinois, I have worked on a variety of projects, from studying the effects of pollutants on black-capped chickadee song development in upstate New York to monitoring roosts of endangered Red-crowned Parrots in urban parks in South Texas.