Bellwether Bird for Climate Change

Photography by Ronan Donovan, written by Jeff Fair

Audubon Magazine

In Wyoming, the Black Rosy-Finch, one of the continent’s least-known, least-accessible birds, may prove a bellwether for a retreating alpine ecosystem—if an intrepid scientist can track its numbers.

  • “The most alarming part is the speed at which the change of habitat is quietly advancing.”

    Carl Brown - Wildlife Biologist

  • When wildlife biologist Carl Brown bailed out of his pickup at 11,000 feet one July day, high in the Beartooth Mountains of northwestern Wyoming's Rockies, I hardly recognized him. He wore a helmet and carried an ice ax strapped to his backpack. Crampons, cams, hexes, carabineers, ropes tied in Prusik knots, slings, and other climbing gear dangled around his narrow torso

    Jeff Fair - Writer

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