Free lecture with Paul Collins
Co-hosted by the Solvang Library
Thursday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.
Solvang Library
1745 Mission Drive, Solvang
Featured image of island scrub-jay courtesy of the National Park Service
The California Channel Islands, an eight-island archipelago off the coast of Southern California, hosts at least 433 species of birds, both native and nonnative. This talk will provide a visual tour and overview of the islands’ rich avifauna. We will learn about an array of birds, ranging from the bald eagle, which has made an amazing human-assisted recovery on several islands, to the island scrub jay, the only island endemic bird species in North America. The recently published Checklist of the Birds of the California Channel Islands by Paul W. Collins and H. Lee Jones will be available for purchase.
Paul Collins is the Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where he has worked for the past 45 years. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on the animal life of the Channel Islands and has spent more than 40 years studying the island’s birds and other fauna through his work for the museum, National Park Service, Nature Conservancy, and other agencies involved with the biota of the Channel Islands. He is currently working with H. Lee Jones on a book about the birds of the California Channel Islands.
