Adrienne Leppold

Adrienne Jo Leppold (adrienne.j.leppold@maine.gov) is the state songbird specialist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Maine in 2016, completing her dissertation on landbird migration throughout the Gulf of Maine. Her work has made groundbreaking strides in understanding the movement of landbirds through the region and led to the creation of an international, multi-agency initiative to study bird migration in the Gulf of Maine region. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge of birds, bird conservation initiatives, and the birds themselves with the public. In her current position, she is collaborating on research into two species of special concern in Maine, the Rusty Blackbird and Bicknell's Thrush. She is also the director of the Maine Bird Atlas (2018-2022), the largest citizen science project undertaken by the department. It is a five-year effort to document the distribution and abundance of all breeding and wintering birds across the entire state of Maine.
She has also co-authored several banding manuals used by banding stations throughout North American and recommended by the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory. Adrienne is committed to helping improve how bird banding techniques and methods are employed, has offered numerous professional development workshops, and is certified at the trainer level by the North American Banding Council.