NYSOA 2025

New York State

Ornithological Association

2025 Conference

September 19-21, 2025

Ithaca, New York

Hosted by Cayuga Bird Club

Registration open April 1 - August 31, 2025.

Join us in Ithaca for a weekend celebrating the birds and birders of New York State!

The 2025 New York State Ornithological Association Conference will be hosted this September by the Cayuga Bird Club in Ithaca, New York, located on Cayuga Lake in the beautiful Finger Lakes region. The meeting is open to the public, brings together birders from across the state and beyond, and offers attendees a variety of social, educational, and birding activities.

Conference Highlights:

Speaker Peter Kaestner, the first person to see 10,000 bird species
Speaker Adriaan Dokter, researching bird migration and population changes using weather radar tools
Breeding Bird Atlas celebration and lunch with NYS Atlas Coordinator, Julie Hart
Field trips to local hotspots, including the 10,000 acre Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Vendor displays and a silent auction featuring items generously donated by our vendors and the local community
A Bird Identification Quiz, led by the NY State Young Birders Club
and more!

Saturday Banquet Keynote Speaker: Peter Kaestner

In Search of the Orange-tufted Spiderhunter

Our Keynote speaker on Saturday evening will be Peter Kaestner, who on February 9, 2024, became the first person to have seen 10,000 species of birds in the world. A highlight of Peter's birding journey was his discovery of a new species of antpitta in Colombia, subsequently named after him, the Cundinamarca Antpitta (Grallaria kaestneri). Peter was recently awarded the American Birding Association’s Roger Tory Peterson lifetime achievement award for his contributions to birding.

Peter will take us on a pictorial journey through his lifetime of birding and his pursuit to find 10,000 bird species, including representatives of every bird family. Starting as a child in Baltimore, and being mentored by his brother Hank to become a birder, Peter studied at Friends School and Cornell. After a stint in the Peace Corps (where he was an honorary field affiliate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Peter joined the U.S. Foreign Service and lived in 12 different countries during his 36-year career. Upon retirement, he devoted himself to birding, bird conservation, and tour leading. As he approached the magical number, things got very interesting, and his plans were completely upset. See how the story unfolds as Peter ends his quest in the forest of SE Mindanao, Philippines.

Friday Speaker: Adriaan Dokter

BirdCast - a Large-scale Perspective on Bird Migration

Dr. Adriaan Dokter, Research Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Center for Avian Population Studies, will give a presentation on Friday evening at IDCC. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, Adriaan studied animal movement during postdoctoral appointments in the Netherlands and at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Adriaan studies the seasonal migrations of birds, from the continental-scale movements of species to the fine-scale behavior of individuals flying through the atmosphere. Some of you may be familiar with BirdCast for migration forecasting and real-time migration imaging using weather radar. Adriaan uses weather radar networks and volunteer-collected bird observations to address questions in migration ecology, including when and where birds migrate, when and where birds die within the annual cycle, and how shifting patterns in mortality and recruitment of young birds cause bird abundances to change. This large-scale perspective is particularly important for understanding the effects of global change on the distribution and migration of birds and for informing future conservation decisions.

Saturday Luncheon: Julie Hart

Breeding Bird Atlas Celebration and Lunch

Celebrate your hard work on the Atlas! Julie Hart, NYS Atlas Coordinator and the Breeding Bird Atlas team would like to show their appreciation for all your hard work by hosting a lunch party on Saturday. We’ll hand out awards, share highlights from preliminary analyses, and showcase exemplary photos of breeding behaviors. Most of all, we will have a chance to thank you in person for all your hard work to update the primary database guiding bird conservation in the state.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse