Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, UC Davis

10/16/2026

Join us this spooky season at Tree Trunk or Treat with Cache Creek Conservancy/Nature Preserve! Next Saturday, October 24th from 5-7PM at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve in Woodland. Boo there or boo square! 👻🎃
Register here: https://cachecreekconservancy.org/tree-trunk-or-treat-2026/

10/15/2026

We’re back in Cambodia today with a new publication from the CamBatRat project, a nationwide Cambodian zoonotic disease research effort surveying local species and investigating disease dynamics. This newest paper by Dr. Juliane Schaer at Humboldt-Universität Berlin studies the genetic and ecological diversity of malaria parasites in bats. The field team, led by MWFB affiliate Dr. Alan Hitch, sampled 1180 individual bats representing 34 species! See what they found, plus a newly discovered connection to local squirrels, here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13071-026-07732-3 🦇🇰🇭

09/27/2026

Welcome back, Aggies! 🔵🟡 You may notice a couple new faces in the WFCB teaching lab this year.

These two flying Brown Pelicans are from Baja California, Mexico in the late 1970s. They were prepared by Jeff Wilcox, who learned how to taxidermy here at the MWFB, and they were part of the Oakland Museum of California collections and exhibitions for over four decades before returning to Davis last year. Now they’re in our classroom with our other Brown Pelican, which was prepared by another former intern, Larry Spear.

Here’s to our student preparators, and let’s have a great fall quarter!

Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Bio OMCA

08/28/2026

Curious about the research happening beyond the walls of the Draper Natural History Museum?

The newest edition of The Pinyon Jay Journal is here! Dive into the latest updates, including:

🔹 A statewide Pinyon Jay summary from Frank Stetler of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department
🔹 A behind-the-scenes look at what technicians Moira and Amber have been up to in the field
🔹 Insight into the museum side of Pinyon Jay research from Andy Engilis (UC Davis MWFB)
🔹And more of Lucky #4’s story, courtesy of Jason Riggio (UC Davis MWFB)

It’s a packed edition—and one you won’t want to miss!

📖 Read it on our website:
https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Pinyon-Jay-Journal-_-CS-Newsletter-August-2026.pdf

08/28/2026

Meet Lucky #4, a Pinyon Jay monitored by GPS for two years straight in Wyoming, in the newest edition of the Pinyon Jay Journal from the Draper Natural History Museum. See what the Bighorn Basin Pinyon Jay Study is learning by tracking birds, including insight into how the species moves across the landscape and utilizes its habitat in response to changing crop abundance. 🌲🐦‍⬛

https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Pinyon-Jay-Journal-_-CS-Newsletter-August-2026.pdf

08/25/2026

The 2026 MWFB Putah Creek Nestbox Highway bird banding season was a great one! 🪺 The cavity-nesting songbirds of Putah Creek built over 250 nests in our nestboxes. Our dedicated team banded over 970 birds, including over 800 fledglings and 100 adults, from both nestboxes and mist nets.

Over 20 years into the project and we’re banding birdier and stronger than ever! If you see any of our birds in the neighborhood, wave hello and let us know.

Video 📹: an adult Western Bluebird released after banding

Putah Creek Biologist Maggie Bourda banding an Oak Titmouse

Comparing fledgling Western Bluebird wing molt

Banded Western Bluebird

Putah Creek Field Research Assistant Karene Liu with a Western Bluebird

Nestbox Research Assistant Grace Bottomley with an Ash-throated Flycatcher

Measuring a White-breasted Nuthatch

Freshly banded Ash-throated Flycatcher fledgling

Fledgling Tree Swallow 💞

08/18/2026

06/24/2026

The Hummingbird Project at the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology will conduct a banding session at the UC Davis Hummingbird GATEway Garden tomorrow, Thursday, June 25 from 6:30-10:00 AM. We are finishing our sampling season, during which we’ve been banding juvenile and adult hummingbirds to study the relationship between hormones and bill weapon behavior.
You’re invited to meet the research team and see bird banding up close. 🌞🌷

UC Davis CA&ES


Bird photos from Tom Uslan and Robin Eyal, courtesy of Dr. Paulina L. Gonzalez-Gomez

05/29/2026

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE! Today we threw a party for the oldest banded songbird on Putah Creek, STEVE the Western Bluebird! He’s 8 years old, which is really old for WEBL. Say happy bird day to Steve! 🥳

Steve was banded as a hatchling in 2018. He’s a big fan of the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway and has fathered AT LEAST 30 chicks of his own. What an MVP. We had a great time celebrating with Steve (watching Steve through binoculars) today. To 120, Steve. 🥂🪱🪺

Shoutout to Amanda and Maggie for organizing and to everyone who joined us!

05/08/2026

Nothing says spring like some freshly pinned mice. 🪻 Good job to all the undergraduates in this year’s WFC-110L Laboratory in Biology & Conservation of Wild Mammals class who taxidermied their first museum specimens today! 🐁