......UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO
Butte Valley Swainson's Hawk Project
SWHA_logo

About Us

Michael Collopy

Dr. Michael Collopy is the Executive Director of the Academy for the Environment at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he has responsibility for developing, enhancing and coordinating environmental teaching, research and service campus wide.  Mike also is a past President of the Raptor Research Foundation, Inc., and has been an officer or member of its Board of Directors since 1984.  Collopy has directed species-specific graduate research projects on numerous raptor species, including Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, Harpy Eagles, Snail Kites, American Kestrels, Ospreys, Aplomado Falcons, and Northern Harriers, as well as raptor community-oriented studies in Florida, Nevada, and southern Mexico.  Currently, Mike is working with his graduate students on the Swainson's Hawk Project, a Reno Kestrel Nest Box Project, and a parental investment study of Southeastern American Kestrels in northern Florida.

Mike received a Master of Science in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University in 1975, where he studied the foraging ecology of American Kestrels wintering in northern California, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan in 1980, where he studied the nesting and foraging ecology of Golden Eagles in southeastern Idaho. 

Mike's current research interests focus on the nesting ecology and behavior, habitat use, and management and conservation of sensitive and endangered birds, particularly raptors.

 

 

 

 

 

Collopy

  
 

Chris Briggs

Chris Briggs is a PhD student in the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.  He has worked on the Butte Valley Swainson’s Hawk Project for over 6 years.  His previous work has helped lead the way of the current Swainson’s Hawk study.

Chris finished his Master’s degree in the Natural Resources and Environmental Science department at the University of Nevada in 2007 on the survival, reproduction and recruitment of Swainson’s Hawks in Butte Valley. 


Chris has also helped to initiate the Reno Kestrel Project and the Truckee Meadows Goldfinch Project along with Dr. Collopy and his labmate, Jessi Brown. He has also helped develop the Reno Goldfinch Project that aims to examine the overwinter survival and movement patterns of lesser and American goldfinches in the Reno area. Speficially, this project proposes to use stable isotopes to determine how bird feeders influence survival and movements of some of our favorite backyard visitors.


Briggs