The 2024 HMBC Annual Meeting of Members will take place prior to this program, from 7:00 - 7:30PM, EDT at Five Rivers EEC in Delmar and remotely via a Zoom meeting. A separate meeting notice for the Annual Meeting will be sent to HMBC members. The program below will take place immediately after the Annual Meeting concludes and is open to the public.

Program: 

Malaysian Borneo: a tropical dream, with Julie Hart and Daniel Schlaepfer

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and its rainforests are among the oldest. Across lowland rainforests, large rivers, and a 13,000-foot mountain range, biodiversity is spectacular and includes over 600 recorded bird species including an endemic family with one species. This primary habitat is being lost at an alarming rate to palm oil plantation, timber logging, and other uses. For three weeks, Julie Hart and Daniel Schlaepfer visited the Malaysian province of Sabah in northeast Borneo on a guided tour across several destinations that included most major habitat types. The trip offered intimate encounters with Bornean Orangutan, Pygmy Elephants, Rafflesia flowers, and land leeches, and tallied an impressive 300 bird species.

Julie Hart is a native Vermonter and an ornithologist by training. She coordinates the third New York State Breeding Bird Atlas. The fifth and final field season is this year and all are encouraged to go atlasing! She has worked nationally and internationally on a variety of bird research and bird conservation projects from the mountain tops in the northeast, to sky islands in the west, to expeditions in the Caribbean, to bird banding in New Zealand, and much more. Daniel Schlaepfer learned birding and its joys from Julie. His background is in plant ecology, and he works as an applied researcher informing land managers across the western US. Julie and Daniel have been members of HMBC since 2019 when they moved to the Capital Region.