Finch Irruptions and the Finch Research Network

Been seeing lots of unusual finches this winter? Irruptions of these fascinating birds from the north in recent years inspired Matthew Young to launch the Finch Research Network (FiRN) in fall 2020. Join us for his lively presentation about Redpolls, Evening Grosbeaks, and the distribution and ecology of different Red Crossbill flight calls on our monthly program on March 18 at 6 pm via Zoom (details below). Matt will also introduce FiRN and its citizen science opportunities.

This will be a free online presentation hosted by the Camden Public Library. To register for the event, please email Julia Pierce (

jp*****@li***********.org











) at the library to request the Zoom login info.

Matthew Young has been observing and enjoying nature since a very young age. He received his B.S. in Water Resources with a minor in Meteorology from SUNY-Oneonta and his M.S. in Ornithology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry/Syracuse University (2003). He was a Regional Editor of the Kingbird, the state ornithological journal in New York, for 10 years, was an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Studies at SUNY-Cortland, and currently teaches an Intro to Birding class for Cornell University. He worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology across 15+ years where he did extensive field work for the Lab’s Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers atlas projects, and was project lead on the Lab’s first Finch Irruptive Bird Survey for Bird Source in 1999. He was the Collections Management Leader/Audio Engineer at the Macaulay Library for 12 years where he edited sounds for several Merlin packs around the world in addition to being the lead audio engineer on such guides as the Songs of the Warblers of North America, Audubon Society Voices of Hawaii’s Birds, and the Cornell Lab’s Guides to Bird Sounds.

Photo credits: Crossbills – Tom Johnson; Evening Grosbeak – Jay McGowan; and Hoary Redpoll – Patrick Tanner