The project is aimed at studying and conservation of Yellow-breasted Bunting, a small beautiful bird of the Emberizidae family, whose nesting area has catastrophically decreased over the past 30 years.

Being the one of the most wide spread bird species Yellow-breasted Bunting has drastically decreased in numbers and breeding range, disappeared from various Western breeding grounds.

We are the team of researchers from Baikalsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University and University of Münster want to study the current situation.

Scientists assume that one of the main reasons of the Yellow-breasted Bunting population declining are the degradation of habitats and the direct prey of the species by humans in the migration stopovers and wintering grounds. Therefore, one of the priorities is the finding out places where Yellow-breasted Buntings are concentrating during migration and wintering. For these purposes, one of best methods is to put geolocators on birds - light sensors, which allow locating the birds by the length of the day. To obtain information from the sensor, the bird must be recaptured, therefore, individuals who have already occupied the nesting area are caught for research. This is due to the fact that Yellow-breasted Buntings have high breeding-site fidelity (the bird returns to the same nesting area from year to year). So we will be able to re-catch it after a year in the same place in order to remove the geolocator. This technique had been used in studying migration of similar species – Ortolan Bunting.

I drew it to help the project. You can learn more and support this project here: planeta.ru/campaigns/100599