Association of Field Ornithologists

Welcome!

Between July 7-9, 2026, AFO held its annual meeting jointly with its sister society, the Wilson Ornithological Society,
in Newport, Rhode Island. 

Plenaries and talks

Each day began with an exciting plenary talk, the first given by Dr. Phil Stouffer on behalf of AFO, and the next given by Dr. David King on behalf of WOS. Throughout the rest of the day, we had a slate of excellent concurrent talks. Here is the online program if you want to take a peek.

On Tuesday evening we held the poster session, with 35 posters presented. Among all the students and professionals who presented their research, we highlight the participation of two grade school students: Alder Dayer-Meyers (going into 4th grade), who presented a poster on a bird feeding experiment, and Coralie Rossbach, (going into 9th grade), who presented a poster about her analyses of hummingbird migration data. 

Workshops and special events

The conference had three fantastic workshops (on Motus tags and tracking technologies, bird movement analysis in R and bioacoustics), as well as other special events: Meet the Editors (more info below), a Silent Auction for Flocks, a Flocks Meetup and an LGBTQ+ & allies breakfast. We had two symposia: one on teaching in ornithology, with talks spanning from how to use eBird data to how bad bird pictures can create better observers, and another about all things birds of Rhode Island.

AFO Council and the Journal of Field Ornithology

AFO held a Council Meeting on Monday July 6, and we had an open Members’ Meeting after the plenary on July 7, where we shared who we are and what we do with all attendees. At the Council Meeting we introduced our new councilors, Luke DeGroote, Juan Ripari, and Karla Sanchez, and later in the conference the outgoing AFO president Matt Shumar handed the presidential plover to current AFO President Rebecka Brasso, who is starting her two-year presidential term.

At the Members’ Meeting we also announced our next annual event: the III Ornithological Congress of the Americas, to be held between August 9–12, 2027, in Guanaqueros, Chile! We are very excited about this event, in collaboration with other societies from the Americas. Stay tuned for updates on our social media. The official announcement of the event, together with its standalone website and social media account is forthcoming.

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The Journal of Field Ornithology also had a special event within the conference. JFO’s co-EICs Rafael Rueda Hernández and Philip Stouffer, together with Ernesto Ruelas Insunza and Kristina Cockle from the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, held a session titled “Meet the Editors“. They shared valuable information regarding the process of publishing papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Grants and awards

AFO gave its traditional Student Presentation Awards: the awardees this year were Kevin Perozeni for Best Student Presentation (“Migratory Ecology of Wilson’s Snipe”) and Tabitha Olsen for Best Student Poster (“Beyond the Cordgrass: Quantifying Winter Habitat for Two Imperiled Marsh Birds”). We also granted our usual Travel Awards.

Additionally, our Best Student Publication awardee Martin Perez, and Skutch Keystone grantee Kristina Cockle shared the results of their own research. AFO leadership also presented the 2026 Skutch Medal to Dr. Rosemary Grant for her career accomplishments in Neotropical ornithology.

Thank you!

We thank everyone involved in the organization of this conference, including the Conference Steering Committee, led by Jim Chace (WOS, local host), Auriel Fournier (WOS president), Kristen Covino (WOS Vice President), Matthew Shumar (AFO Past President), and Rebecka Brasso (AFO President); the local committee working with Jim to assist with registration and check-in as well as other tasks on campus and field trips (the Audubon Society of RI and Liam Corcoran), the Scientific Committee chaired by Kristen Covino and Rebecka Brasso; the Travel Awards committee handled by Rebecka Brasso and a team of judges who provided feedback on the applications; Maureen McClung (AFO) and Letty Reichart (WOS) who ran the Student Presentation Award program; the judges during the conference; Mike Van den Tillaart, Rafa Rueda Hernández, and Dylan Titmuss who hosted excellent workshops; Jennifer Smith for organizing the Flocks Silent Auction, and the conference attendees, for sharing their research and passion for ornithology with us in Newport. 

Until next year!