Evan Buckland is a passionate local birder with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and an M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has worked for the National Park Service and Audubon North Carolina monitoring coastal species of concern and been a volunteer for several local and state agencies and non profit organizations monitoring birds and doing educational outreach. Buckland is the Co-Founder and Managing Director for the Cape Fear Bird Observatory whose mission is to promote conservation of birds and their habitats in North Carolina through research, education, outreach, and community involvement.

Buckland will discuss Cape Fear Bird Observatory’s partnership with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to build a network of local collaborators to monitor Painted Buntings in coastal North Carolina. The project aims to learn more about local abundance of Painted Buntings as well as their nesting ecology and overwintering behavior.