‘Birds are the great unifier’: UK study on avian migration and survival takes flight

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 13, 2025) — At the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE), researchers and students are studying how wildlife populations respond to conservation activities. The McNeil Lab, led by Darin “DJ” McNeil, Ph.D., assistant professor of wildlife management in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR), focuses on researching forest birds in Kentucky and the eastern United States.

Supported by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service Conservation Effects Assessment Project grant and the McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grant, the study titled “Assessing the Value of Forest Management Practices to Native Birds of the Central Appalachian Mountains” is identifying factors that drive variation in survival rates among different avian populations. To gather data, McNeil is using a technique called bird banding — a method to capture, mark and track movement of birds with a small, numbered tag attached to their tarsus, or leg.