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 The Cosumnes River is the only undammed river that flows from the Sierra Nevada to the San Francisco Bay and offers a great example of what a riparian, or streamside, ecosystem should look like. PRBO's work in this area aims to: 1) identify and track breeding and migratory bird populations, 2) identify important areas and ecosystem processes, such as flooding, for birds in the habitat, and 3) to inform land managament and restoration efforts in other riparian areas by incorporating our bird monitoring results into management resources like the state-wide Riparian Bird Conservation Plan (RBCP) of the Riparian Habitat Joint Venture (RHJV).
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Contact Julian Wood at jwood at prbo dot org.
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Partners and collaborators:
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Focal Study Species
 
Black-headed Grosbeak Song Sparrow Yellow Warbler
The Riparian Bird Conservation Plan for California designates 14 priority species recommended as focal species for research and monitoring. 10 of the 14 focal species are present at the Preserve during the course of the year including 5 breeding species: Common Yellowthroat, Black-headed Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Swainson's Hawk and Song Sparrow. The 5 other focal species are neotropical migrants that use the Preserve as an important stop-over site during migration including Yellow Warbler, Swainson's Thrush, Warbling Vireo, Willow Flycatcher, and Wilson's Warbler. The Preserve also has nesting Hutton's Vireos (resident) and Pacific-slope Flycatchers (migratory), both of which have been extirpated as breeders from most of the Central Valley. The State-endangered Yellow-billed Cuckoo has also been recorded at the Preserve (2001).
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Connecting Birds, Bats, and Fish
Beginning in 2002, PRBO has begun collaborating on an exciting new interdisciplinary study focusing on the re-connection of the river to its floodplain and the effects on productivity for the riparian food web. UC Davis research by Dr. Peter Moyle has shown that these inundated floodplain areas outside the river channel are important foraging areas for native fish (especially young of the year). PRBO data on songbirds as well as research by UC Berkeley on bat populations will provide critical information about the terrestrial components of the riparian food web.
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About the Cosumnes River Preserve
With the mission to protect the Cosumnes River, the only undammed river that flows from the Sierra Nevada into the Bay delta, and the native plants and wildlife that depend upon it. The Preserve contains the largest remaining tract of mature valley oak riparian forest in the Central Valley. To learn more about TNC's Cosumnes River Preserve please visit their website: http://www.cosumnes.org/
Riparian habitat restoration has been a primary objective of the Preserve and restoration sites of various ages include both cultivated (primarily valley oaks) restoration sites and process-based restoration (Fremont's cottonwood and willows) resulting from levee breaches along the Cosumnes River. Current habitat restoration at the Preserve is focusing on an ecosystem approach, relying on natural river processes such as flooding to restore the dynamic mosaic of riparian habitats that was historically present along the river. Levees that separate the river from its floodplain have been accidentally (1986) and intentionally breached (1995 and 1997) to allow flood waters to spread out over former agricultural lands. The Accidental Forest, primarily fremont's cottonwoods, resulted from the first accidental levee breach. The floodplain areas inundated from the 1995 and 1997 levee breaches are also regenerating naturally with stands of young cottonwoods and willows. To learn more about TNC's Cosumnes River Preserve please visit their website: http://www.cosumnes.org/
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