Orin J. Robinson Jr.
I am a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The overarching theme of my research is using and developing quantitative tools to make use of large ecological data sets in order to learn about vertebrate population and community ecology. Ultimately, the goal is to apply what we have learned to vertebrate conservation.
Latest Publications
We estimated continental biomass flows of nocturnal avian migrants across the contiguous United States using a network of 143 weather radars. We show that, relative to biomass leaving in autumn, proportionally more biomass returned in spring across the southern United States than across the northern United States. Neotropical migrants apparently achieved higher survival during the combined migration and non-breeding period. Mortality expected with longer migration distances was offset by high survival in the (sub)tropics. Migrants relying on a ‘higher survivorship’ life-history strategy may be particularly sensitive to variations in survival on the overwintering grounds, highlighting the need to identify and conserve important non-breeding habitats.
We combined eBird data with banding and nesting data to build an integrated population model (IPM) for tricolored blackbirds. Our models showed that the California population of tricolored blackbirds (~95% of the global population) have declined by 34% in the past 10 years. We also determined that nesting success is likely driving the decline, and is the best target for management action. This study was featured on Science Daily
We developed a method for evaluating and using data for rare/hard to detect species in species distribution models. We created a filter that corrects for spatial bias and class imbalance; two common issues when sampling for rare species. We used this method in combination with machine learning to create seasonal distribution models for tricolored blackbirds.