Indiana Audubon has received a $27,000 challenge grant from the Efroymson Family Fund in support of the society’s initiatives centered around combining technology with research into migratory bird movement and nesting behavior in Indiana at select bird diversity hotspots. 

The grant award will allow Indiana Audubon to study bird movement via the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Motus allows for coordinated radio telemetry arrays that study movements of small animals, including birds and bats.  The society will use structure-based towers and mobile trackers to monitor nesting bird movement through differing Hoosier habitats at the Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary, east of Indianapolis, as well as studying whip-poor-will movement and habitat preference in a relict stronghold population in the Indiana Dunes of northwest Indiana.

Many of the target bird species being studied have experienced notable declines across their range and this research will provide more insight into the factors on their nesting grounds that may be contributing to their decline.  Visitors to the Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary will also have a chance to observe the research in person at select bird banding demonstrations throughout 2021.

In 1998, Dan and Lori Efroymson established the Efroymson Family Fund.  The fund continues a long legacy of charitable commitment by the Efroymson family in Indiana. Since Dan’s passing in 1999, Lori Efroymson-Aguilera and their two children, Jeremy and Elissa, have continued the family’s philanthropic legacy in Indianapolis and across the United States by providing financial support to a diverse range of issues including arts and culture, historic preservation, the environment and helping those in need. To date, the Efroymson Family Fund has awarded more than $100 million in grants.

“Indiana Audubon Society is pleased to be a 2020 grant recipient,” said Brad Bumgardner, IAS Executive Director.  “This funding represents propels the current and planned projects Indiana Audubon Society is working on.  We look forward to expanding our efforts in both conservation and education.”

For more information about the grant funded projects or other Indiana Audubon programs, visit them on the web at www.indianaaudubon.org.

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