Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 7 pm

Tania Romero – Morning Rush Hour on the Feathered Freeway: bird migration monitoring, training and outreach at Bear Divide

Every spring, millions of birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds, but few places highlight the spectacle of migration in western North America quite like Bear Divide. This low elevation pass in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County appears to funnel thousands of birds through a narrow corridor northward during early morning hours in a phenomenon known as “morning flight”. Bear Divide offers a fantastic opportunity to observe active diurnal migration in western North America and provides a unique opportunity to study a vast number and variety of migratory landbirds within one of the largest cities in North America. The site has become a regular gathering place for birders, researchers, and community members, bringing together people from near and far to partake in the spectacle.

In 2021, the Bear Divide Banding station was cofounded by local avian biologists Tania Romero, Lauren Hill, and master bander Walter Sakai. Established as an avian monitoring program, the Bear Divide Banding Station uses mist-netting and bird banding field sampling methods to build a long-term dataset for assessing trends in migratory bird population dynamics and body condition in an understudied region. Over the past four spring seasons, it has operated as an avian migration research platform for migration studies, bander training, and collaborative projects, while also serving as a hub for community education and outreach to inspire avian conservation and stewardship. The Bear Divide Banding Station is dedicated not only to filling knowledge gaps in western avian migration research but also gaps in opportunity and access to participate in the field of avian science and the joy of birding. This talk will explore the work co-founder Tania Romero, and her colleagues do at the Bear Divide Banding Station, revealing what they have learned over the last four spring seasons in operation, as well as the station’s role in advancing bird conservation and public engagement.

Tania Romero is a Chicana avian biologist from Los Angeles, California. Tania received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, San Diego in 2016 where she majored in Biology and double minored in Environmental Studies and Ethnic Studies. From 2016 to 2021 she worked throughout the Los Angeles area as an environmental educator, field technician, environmental consultant, and avian biologist with multiple nonprofits and private firms. Her extensive avian experience, particularly in bird banding, led her to co-founding the Bear Divide Banding Station, a spring migration banding station in eastern of the Angeles Forest in Los Angeles County. The founding of this station urged her to return to graduate school and is the main basis of her research. She received a Master of Science degree in Biology from California State University Los Angeles where she studied the impacts of climate variability on migratory landbirds in Southern California in the Wood Lab. She is currently a PhD graduate student in the Tingley lab studying larger scale migration ecological research. She is a first-generation student and professional in the conservation field pursuing a career in migratory bird research.

Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 7 p.m.
Cathy McFadden and Paul Clarke — Birding the Mountains of Colombia

More species of birds are found in Colombia than in any other country in the world. This high avian diversity is due in part to the country’s complex topography. High mountain ranges separated by deep valleys promote speciation as populations with similar habitat requirements become isolated from one another by these geographic barriers. As a result, over 80 of the more than 1900 bird species found in Colombia are endemic to the country, many of them known from just a single mountain range. In 2025, PVBA members Cathy McFadden and Paul Clarke explored the mountains of this hospitable country, searching for those species endemic to the isolated Santa Marta Mountains of the Caribbean coast and to each of the three cordilleras of the Andes that trisect central Colombia. We’ll present a slideshow of these (and other) species we saw during our travels, including many endemic, range-restricted and often critically endangered hummingbirds, parrots, wrens and antpittas.

Cathy McFadden is a professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College and has special research interests in the evolutionary relationships of marine organisms, especially soft corals. She and her husband Paul Clarke enjoy international travel and birding the world.

Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Patrick Gavit – iNaturalist – Stories from the Front Lines

Discover how everyday observations can lead to extraordinary discoveries using your phone with iNaturalist! Pat will introduce what iNaturalist is, how it works, and why it has become such a powerful tool for science, conservation, and community. Through fascinating real-world stories, you’ll learn how observations shared by people like you have led to new species records, range expansions, and meaningful conservation action. Whether you’re a seasoned naturalist or just curious about the world around you, this talk will inspire you to see—and share—nature in a whole new way.

Patrick is a retired biochemist who worked in the biotech industry for 37 years. He developed a deep interest in the natural world during his childhood in semi-rural Michigan and became especially interested in birds after a high school science club field trip to a local wildlife refuge. It wasn’t a single bird but the entire experience that sparked his passion. His favorite bird is the Swainson’s Hawk, and reptiles are his favorite group of animals.

Thursday, May February 5, 2026 at 7 pm

Van Pierszalowski – Building California’s First Statewide Breeding Bird Atlas

California is one of the last states without a full-scale Bird Breeding Atlas (BBA)—and over 80% of its land remains under-surveyed using this gold-standard approach. BBAs mobilize trained community scientists and field technicians to collect fine-scale, behavior-based data—like courtship, nesting, and fledging—across an entire state.

Now, thanks to the growth of the birding community and tools like eBird, a statewide California BBA is finally within reach. This talk will explore how a custom-built eBird Atlas website will allow volunteers and professionals alike to map the state’s breeding birds in unprecedented detail—at a time when this information is more important than ever.

Van’s childhood was split between Cambria, CA, and Kodiak Island, AK, where he worked on his father’s commercial salmon fishing boat for 8 years. After earning a degree in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, he embarked on a successful career as a songwriter and musician, appearing on TV shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien and CBS News Sunday Morning. Now living in LA, he’s fallen in love with the area’s varied habitats and stunning vagrant birds and is continually inspired by its diverse birding community. In 2023, Van completed a California Big Year, recording 503 species – becoming only the second birder to surpass 500 in a single year in the state. He is an eBird Regional Reviewer for Los Angeles County, and leads trips for several local organizations, including Los Angeles Birders and the Pasadena Audubon Society.