Islands and Avian Evolution
Featuring Bob Lewis
Thursday, August 19 – 7 p.m.
Islands play a key role in both the evolution of new avian species and the extinction of others. Because of their isolation, birds that arrive on islands evolve separately from their parent group and eventually become unique… thus a new species is born! But that isolation also makes them vulnerable to threats like hurricanes, volcanoes, rising seas, and introduced diseases or predator species. Although over 80 percent of bird species live on continents, 92 percent of extinctions since 1500 have been on islands. Join us to view some marvelous island species and learn about the conservation issues unique to islands.
A free video recording of this presentation will be available until September 7. Here’s the link and passcode:
Access Passcode: ^b4VZM9H
Want more info on the problem of invasive mice on the Farallon Islands, which Bob discussed in his presentation? See Point Blue’s web site at https://www.pointblue.org/science_blog/farallon-islands-restoration-how-you-can-help/ and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service web sitee: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Farallon_Islands/resource_management.html
About our speaker:
Bob Lewis has taught birding classes in the Bay Area for over 25 years and loves to travel, especially to islands in search of birds. He is a board member of the Farallon Islands Foundation, created to foster life on islands. Bob has visited many of the larger islands populated with unique species, including Madagascar, Borneo, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Cuba etc. The talk will be illustrated with his photos of birds from these places.