Audubon Pioneered Techniques Help Drive Seabird Restoration Worldwide

Seabirds are one of the most threatened bird groups across the globe, with approximately 30 percent of species at enhanced risk of extinction. Invasive predators at breeding sites, habitat loss, and harmful fishing practices pose grave threats to seabirds; climate change, sea-level rise, and increasing storms will also flood low-lying seabird breeding habitat.

Audubon and other conservation groups across the globe have been fighting these threats in multiple ways, and one of the most effective tactics is to move breeding colonies to higher ground and new islands—or, in many cases, old islands, since predation and hunting has extirpated birds from many of their historical breeding sites. This is simple, in theory, but making sure the birds follow along to the new areas requires a deft hand. Using social attraction techniques pioneered by Audubon’s Steve Kress conservationists create the appearance of a thriving seabird colony at key locations and attract new pairs of birds to safely nest together in large numbers. 

But how well do these methods work, and with which species? To track that, Audubon and its partners created the Seabird Restoration Database. The database currently covers 138 species of birds across 551 locations in 36 countries, and according to Donald Lyons, director of conservation science for Audubon’s Seabird Institute, most of these projects use a combination of Audubon-crafted decoys and other social attraction methods like recordings.

Recent analysis of the data published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that within an average of two years from the project’s start, 80 percent of seabird projects resulted in birds visiting the site, and 76 percent achieved breeding. Terns, gulls, and auks are among the seabird groups seeing the most success. Others, like petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses, typically require a combination of social attraction and translocation to be most successful. 

“Fifty years ago Audubon first combined translocation and social attraction to successfully bring a healthy population of Atlantic Puffins back to Maine’s coast, so it was amazing to learn of more than 800 projects undertaken since then,” says Lyons. “These projects are a powerful testament to the dedication of seabird practitioners around the globe, and Audubon is proud to have supported restoration training for many of these devoted conservationists.”