Ben Stalheim
Wildlife Biologist
Education
B.S. Wildlife Conservation Biology, Minor in Geospatial Science; Cal Poly Humboldt 2019
Research/Career Interests
I grew up in Washington State and developed a love of birds in middle school. I started working with IWS in February of 2022 as a seasonal tech, but continued on as a permanent biologist on the shrike monitoring team. My love of birds has gifted me the good fortune of traveling the country for work.
As a nest searcher, I have experience working with Flammulated Owls, Marbled Murrelets, Snail Kites, and Gray Vireos. Many of these species are difficult to follow and nest in hard-to-find places, making it a unique challenge as a biologist. I have experience creating nest areas by triangulating points during surveys, as well as following territorial males back to locations.
I have conducted behavioral observations of species such as Black Phoebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Flammulated Owl, Sandhill Crane, Aleutian Cackling Goose, Snail Kite, and Gray Vireo. Most of my field work involved the sampling of breeding behaviors, but I have created ethograms of Black Phoebes and Sandhill Cranes and conducted thorough behavioral observations on Guillemots. In addition, I have resighted color bands on species such as Snowy Plover, Steller’s Jay, Snail Kite, and Gray Vireo.
When not scanning the canyons for shrikes; I love trail running, more birding, reading, playing sports, and learning new things!
Contributing Author
Combined science and writing backgrounds to try and attract more people to experiment with looking for birds.
Mount Baker Experience Magazine 2021
Contact
bstalheim@iws.org