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FiRN is a nonprofit, and was been granted 501c3 status in 2020. We are a co-lead on the Evening Grosbeak Road to Recovery Project, and have funded upwards of almost $8,000 to go towards research, conservation and education for finch projects in the last year plus. FiRN is committed to researching and protecting these birds and other threatened finch species like the Evening Grosbeak, Rosy-finches, and Hawaii’s finches the honeycreepers, and if you have been enjoying all the blogs and identifying of Evening Grosbeak and Red Crossbill call types (upwards of 20,000 recordings listened to), redpoll subspecies and green morph Pine Siskins FiRN has helped with over the years, please think about supporting our efforts and making a small donation at the donate link below.

The address of the The Finch Research Network is 3762 State Route 41 Cincinnatus, NY, but please send any donations payable by check to PO Box 5431 Cortland, NY 13045. You can also email Matt Young at info@finchnetwork.org or call at 607-345-7713 to inquire more. Our 501(c)3 tax ID# is 85-3093400.

We are funding student projects that will have a focus on field work and getting people outdoors. We have already been collaborating with Western Pennsylvania Land Conservancy, Powdermill Avian Nature Reserve, and Carnegie Museum of Natural History on the wintering Evening Grosbeak Project. We’ve been discussing a few different areas of focus regarding research on Red Crossbills as well, one specific area that is already ongoing is putting out ARU’s (autonomous recording units) across North America to collect additional call type data. We’re also part of a Rosy-Finch working group, and this will be the fourth finch group (the Rosy-finch Project) that will be the focus in United States and Canada (the others will be the Red Crossbill, Evening Grosbeak and Hawaii Honeycreepers (aka Hawaii’s finches).

Summary of first two years:

In 2020 we launched the Finch Research Network (FiRN), which is dedicated to the study and conservation of finches and their habitats globally. I am proud to announce that in February 2021 FiRN achieved 501c3 status and became an official nonprofit organization!

In the first 3 years the website has had close to 3.5 million visits, we described a new Red Crossbill call type (type 12), we presented approximately 60 programs for various bird and nature-oriented groups, supported the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program for an Evening Grosbeak (species of special concern) Winter tracking project, as well as a Rosy-Finch working group, published more than 85 blogs about finches, and placed nearly 50 Autonomous Recording Units for the monitoring of Evening Grosbeak, Red Crossbill and Hawaii Honeycreepers (aka Hawaii’s finches). And that was just in our first two plus years! Like we already have with the Evening Grosbeak, we hope to become even more directly involved with conservation efforts of Honeycreepers (aka Hawaii’s finches) in Hawaii as well — We are sending monies to the Maui Forest Recovery team!

With a 92% decline since 1970, evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) was cited as the steepest declining landbird in the continental United States and Canada in the Partners in Flight 2016 Landbird Conservation Plan. Causes for the decline are not fully understood, but may be a result of several factors including spruce budworm (Choristoneura spp.) population cycles, forest alteration and loss, collision and disease mortalities, and climate change factors. Following several conservation listings, evening grosbeak has garnered conservation attention from the recently formed Road to Recovery (R2R) Initiative as it was called out as one of 91 bird Species on the Brink of Endangerment.

From February 2022 through May 2023, members of our team ventured into the field in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York and northern Maine to study Evening Grosbeaks. So far we’ve color-banding 272 birds and have deployed 85 nanotags and 46 satellite tags. From the 46 satellite tags we’ve already received over 10,000 positions transmitted with some of the birds tagged moving to Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba for the breeding season. Fundraising continues and we hope to start banding and tagging in the Western U.S. and Canada in the next few years.

All this work is part of the Road to Recovery for the Evening Grosbeak, a species that is rapidly declining.

To keep you up to date on the latest research, news and blogs I’m inviting you to sign up for our email list : https://finchnetwork.org/subscribe.  

Thank you so much for your love of finches and I look forward to your support as we continue to grow the Finch Research Network!
Warm Regards, Matthew A. Young

Founder & Board President Finch Research Network

To donate, click on the donate tab above — Any donations are greatly appreciated!

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If you have any questions, please feel free to email below or call 607-345-7713. Thank you!