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Important Bird Areas in MD-DC:
Prioritizing Sites for Conservation
Monday, September 20, 7:30 p.m.

Woodend Sanctuary, directions
RSVP to Kathy Wilson 301-652-9188 x10 
This event is free and open to the public.

Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are sites that are essential for bird conservation, supporting significant populations of vulnerable bird species. This talk explains how these sites are selected, where they are located, and how the IBA designation is being used to promote bird conservation across Maryland.

David Curson, Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon MD-DC, is responsible for running the MD-DC Important Bird Areas Program and serves as the principal science and conservation staff person for Audubon MD-DC. Dave grew up in London, where he spent much of his childhood watching birds and also chasing various other forms of wildlife, including urban foxes, badgers, amphibians, moths and butterflies. He describes himself as an ornithologist, ecologist, conservation biologist and avid birder, having birded extensively throughout western Europe and North America. In 1985 he received his BSc in Ecology at the University of East Anglia and began a career in conservation biology, working as a Habitat Survey Ecologist for local government and NGOs in London. He came to the United States in 1993 to begin graduate studies and received MS and PhD degrees in the Department of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His graduate research focused on the ecology and behavior of brown-headed cowbirds and their hosts in northern New Mexico, and he’s not ashamed to say he developed quite an admiration for this parasitic species!