ABOUT > STAFF
Executive Director | Research Director | Education Director
Jay Carlisle, Ph. D.
Research Director

Jay Carlisle received his B.S. in Ecology from The Evergreen State College in 1995 and his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of South Dakota in 2005. He has worked with the Idaho Bird Observatory for 12 years and, though he came to IBO as a raptor geek, he spent one year as a hawk counter before helping to establish IBO's long-term studies of songbird and small forest owl migration in southwestern Idaho. After completing his graduate work on stopover ecology of songbirds, Jay returned to Idaho to continue working with IBO as the Research Director.

Jay’s current research interests are focused on the stopover ecology, habitat needs, and conservation of migratory landbirds in the West and in Latin America. In particular, elucidating the relative importance of riparian and montane habitats throughout the arid West during spring and fall migration is a major goal. Likewise, he also dreams of establishing a year-round research program that would include migration and wintering studies in Latin America. He has authored and co-authored over 10 publications, book reviews, and reports, many of which focus on migration and stopover issues. Equally important, Jay really enjoys the outreach aspects of IBO's many programs and hopes that IBO can be instrumental in instilling a conservation ethic in and around the communities in which we work.

In his free time, Jay enjoys birding, futbol (aka soccer), hiking, biking, and many other outdoor activities, trying to speak Spanish, and international travel.