Climate & Environment

CUriosity: What are Colorado's iconic birds—and how can you see them?

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:07:45 +0000

CUriosity: What are Colorado's iconic birds—and how can you see them? Yvaine Ye Wed, 04/15/2026 - 12:07

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Scott Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the Mountain Research Station at CU �鶹ӰԺ, shares some local birds you may never have heard of.

Male greater sage grouse inflates its air sacs while trying to attract mates in spring. (Credit: Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management)

Ah, spring. Time to plant flowers and do a little cleaning.

It’s also time for the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) to strut its stuff. These birds look a little like fancy chickens, and they live across much of the American West, including in the sagebrush grassland of western Colorado.

Every spring, males engage in a bizarre display to attract females. They flex their wings, suck in as much as a gallon of air, then inflate two sacs the size and color of lemons on their breasts—letting rip a series of whistles, coos and popping noises.

“It’s a combination of vocalizations and the sound their feathers make when they rub them against their bodies,” says Scott Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Taylor is an ornithologist and director of the Mountain Research Station at CU �鶹ӰԺ, a high-altitude research facility near the mountain town of Nederland. He’s also the host of the podcast “Okay, … But Birds,” which debuted in December.

“Colorado is an amazing place to watch birds because of all the different habitats we have here, all the way from the high plains to the prairies and up into the alpine,” he says.

To celebrate spring, Taylor is sharing a few of the wildest, strangest and underappreciated birds in the state.

Bird watching

Turkey vulture perches on top of Macky Auditorium on the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus (Casey Cass/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

Brown-capped rosy finch (CC image via Wikimedia Commons)

White-tailed ptarmigan in its winter plumage (CC image via Wikimedia Commons)

Mountain chickadee (Anna Weyers Blades/USFWS)

He begins with what might be Colorado’s ultimate 14er climber, the brown-capped rosy finch (Leucosticte australis).

These small birds are brown with a blush of pink on their undersides. They live almost exclusively in the mountains of Colorado, only venturing into a small corner of New Mexico.

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Rosy finches are also the highest nesting birds in North America. They lay their eggs at elevations of up to 14,000 feet above sea level and higher and have evolved for life at these extreme altitudes. They carry a special kind of hemoglobin molecule in their red blood cells. This hemoglobin is especially adept at picking up oxygen and delivering it to tissues. It’s a useful tool when you breathe the thin air on top of a mountain.

Next up is a master of disguise, the white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura). Ptarmigans, another chicken-like bird, can usually be found running around the mountain tundra. To blend in with their surroundings, they turn brown in the summer and stark white in the winter.

“The chicks also have a pattern that looks like lichen, so it’s really good camouflage to protect themselves from predators,” Taylor says.

Experienced birders may overlook black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain (Poecile gambeli) chickadees, two species that are common visitors to bird feeders around much of the American West. But these birds can achieve feats of memory that are almost unparalleled in the animal world, Taylor says.

Every year, chickadees collect tens of thousands of seeds and store away each of them in a unique hiding place. They remember their hiding spots when winter arrives.

“With a brain that’s just a little bit bigger than a chickpea, they can remember way more than I can,” he says.

Taylor adds that not all bird species are flourishing in Colorado. Rosy finch and sage grouse populations are declining across the state because of human threats like warming temperatures, habitat loss, and oil and gas extraction.

But there’s a lot that people can do to help birds around Colorado. Taylor recommends planting native plants in your yard and keeping domestic cats indoors where they can’t hunt birds.

There’s also no better time to get into birding. Apps like Merlin Bird ID, which was developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, can help novices identify the birds they see. Local birding groups around the state also lead trips that beginners can join.

You don’t have to go farther than the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus to enjoy feathered friends, either. Several pairs of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) nest on campus. Taylor even spotted one of them scooping up a rabbit from Norlin Quad last year. Violet-green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) just returned to �鶹ӰԺ last week and will soon be building their nests under the red tiles on many campus buildings.

“One of the reasons birds fascinate us is that they're everywhere,” Taylor says. “On a daily basis, you don’t see that many other forms of wildlife. But birds are around us all the time.”

To celebrate spring, ornithologist Scott Taylor shares some Colorado birds you may never have heard of.

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Using aerospace technology to study glacier melt in Greenland

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:40:32 +0000

Using aerospace technology to study glacier melt in Greenland Megan M Rogers Tue, 04/14/2026 - 07:40

Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Alia Khan is integrating field-based biogeochemical analysis with NASA's next-generation satellite sensors to quantify how biological algae blooms, mineral dust and wildfire smoke are darkening the Greenland Ice Sheet and accelerating its melt.

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Smart, cool and recycled: 5 ways tomorrow's buildings could be easier on the planet

Yvaine Ye — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Smart, cool and recycled: 5 ways tomorrow's buildings could be easier on the planet Yvaine Ye Thu, 04/09/2026 - 01:00

Yvaine Ye

From recycling heat from data centers to laying foundations made with algae, CU �鶹ӰԺ scientists are working to make tomorrow's homes and offices more climate-friendly.

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Documentary shares secrets of the bees

Elizabeth Lock — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:23:29 +0000

Documentary shares secrets of the bees Elizabeth Lock Sat, 04/04/2026 - 09:23

CU �鶹ӰԺ Assistant Professor Samuel Ramsey served as science advisor and a producer, alongside executive producer James Cameron, for Secrets of the Bees, premiering on National Geographic, Disney+ and Hulu.

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Welcome to the CU �鶹ӰԺ bee hive

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:40:20 +0000

Welcome to the CU �鶹ӰԺ bee hive Megan M Rogers Thu, 04/02/2026 - 14:40

Entomologist Samuel Ramsey, aka Dr. Buggs, shows us around this unique space on campus, where thousands of bees are free to come and go while researchers get an inside look. Want to discover more buzz on the bees? Ramsey is featured in National Geographic's "Secrets of the Bees," now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

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Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies?

Yvaine Ye — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:53:50 +0000

Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies? Yvaine Ye Tue, 03/31/2026 - 08:53

Lauren Lipuma , Yvaine Ye

For the past weeks, temperatures in Colorado have surged 20 to 30 degrees above average for March, normally one of the state’s snowiest months.

That’s on top of an unusually warm and dry winter for the American Southwest, a region already grappling with long-term water shortages since around 2000. In Colorado, snowpack sits at about 40% of normal levels, among the lowest since comprehensive modern records began roughly four decades ago.

In parts of the southern Colorado River Basin, a 250,000-square-mile watershed spanning seven states in the southwest, snowpack has dropped to less than one-third of normal. The basin provides water for 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland.

Snowpack acts like frozen water towers, said Ben Livneh, associate professor in the department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. As temperatures rise and the Southwest enters its typically hot and dry spring and summer months, melting snow provides about 80% of the water used by downstream communities in the Colorado River Basin.

In response to the snow drought, Denver's water authority recently declared a Stage 1 drought, the first drought alert the city has issued since the summer of 2013. Other Front Range cities are considering similar measures.

“In Colorado, our peak snowpack happens around mid-April, so there is still a chance that we could get more snow,” said Livneh, who’s also the director of the Western Water Assessment (WWA) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). According to the National Weather Service, a storm is bringing precipitation to Colorado this week, with the potential for a few inches of accumulation in the mountains. “But at this point, it does look like we have a long way to go to catch up.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ Today sat down with Livneh to talk about the impact of a snow drought on Colorado communities, whether drought is the new normal and what individuals can do.

How dry is it?

Colorado lies in a mountainous region far from the ocean, so our climate naturally varies a lot. As a result, it’s not uncommon to see big swings between wet years and dry years.

Right now, we are in a very dry period, and the numbers are pretty stark. There’s barely any snow on mountains in lower elevations, and some snowpack could melt early because of the warm weather. When we look ahead to the amount of water expected to flow into our reservoirs, which would be the water people actually get to use, the current forecasts fall among the lowest we’ve seen since the early 1980s when the detailed snow measurements began.

Across Colorado, snowpack sits at below 50% of normal levels as of March 30, 2026. (Credit: National Weather Service)

How does this year compare with previous drought years?

There were some years that were drier, like 1977 and 1981. But those years weren’t as warm as this year. Over the past 40 years, since we’ve had continuous observation data, 2002 and 2012 were also warm with low precipitation, but they weren’t as dry as this year.

We have a lot of systems in place that were specifically designed to handle individual bad years, like these big, impressive reservoirs. But we’ve been in a dry period for the past 25 years, and every dry year puts additional stress on our infrastructure.

What could be causing this snow drought?

We’re currently in the warmest 25-year period on record, and warming is one of the clearest signals of recent climatic changes. When it’s warmer, the atmosphere can hold more moisture.

At the same time, the climate in our region naturally swings between wetter and drier decades. It’s almost like a pendulum that shifts every 20 or 30 years.

What may be happening now is that those two things— climate change and natural fluctuations— are overlapping, creating something of a perfect storm for this year.

What is the WWA doing to help?

WWA is working to support decision makers to best manage their water, based on what is actually available, as well as what is forecasted in the Colorado River Basin.

Much of our regional economy relies on water, from the ski industry to food growers and power generators. The stress from drought is widespread.

Our region’s planning and treaties in the past were based on assumptions about historical conditions. Now we’re trying to figure out whether these dry conditions are a drought or perhaps closer to the long-term normal conditions.

We are also trying to get a better sense of what mountain communities are experiencing and what types of information they need, because many of them rely on the snowpack and snow melt as their primary reservoir for water.

Should people be worried about water shortages right now?

This is really a large-scale phenomenon, so if anything, I would encourage people to get curious about the science and what we can say about the current conditions. Indoor water use doesn’t consume very much, and cities are not really at risk of running out of water. But people should be mindful not to waste water outdoors. Pay attention to city rules for outdoor water use, like when you can turn on your sprinklers and water your lawn.

Other than that, I encourage people to go outside. This is certainly a big departure from what we think Colorado winters should be like, but it also offers opportunities for people to bike to work more often, or spend more time outdoors doing things they might not otherwise be able to do.

With snowpack at 40% of normal, a CU �鶹ӰԺ hydrologist explains why this year’s snow drought stands out and what it could mean for the Colorado River Basin.

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Volleyball time during a warm spell on campus during Spring Break in March, normally one of the snowiest months in Colorado. (Credit: Glenn J. Asakawa/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

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Students playing volleyball during a warm spell on campus in March, normally one of the snowiest months in Colorado. (Credit: Glenn J. Asakawa/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

Investigation to evaluate water filtration options in community plagued by PFAS

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:29:14 +0000

Investigation to evaluate water filtration options in community plagued by PFAS Megan M Rogers Tue, 03/17/2026 - 08:29

INSTAAR Fellow and Professor Riley Mulhern is launching a new study to evaluate the efficacy of home treatment options for PFAS in a contaminated area outside of Spokane, Washington.

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Scientists harness AI to reveal forces behind glacier surges

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:17:02 +0000

Scientists harness AI to reveal forces behind glacier surges Megan M Rogers Fri, 03/06/2026 - 10:17

Glaciers are constantly changing and reshaping the Earth's surface. CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers have developed a new machine-learning tool to better understand how Arctic glaciers suddenly surge.

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Bridging research and action: How collaboration has changed wildfire approach and response

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:08:00 +0000

Bridging research and action: How collaboration has changed wildfire approach and response Megan M Rogers Thu, 03/05/2026 - 11:08

Researchers and practitioners who work at the intersection of communities and wildfire issues have formed a community of practice essential to the development of wildfire mitigation and preparedness across the nation.

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CUriosity: Why does Colorado have so many hot springs, and are they at risk?

Daniel William Strain — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:57:54 +0000

CUriosity: Why does Colorado have so many hot springs, and are they at risk? Daniel William… Wed, 03/04/2026 - 15:57

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Shemin Ge, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, shares how a source of clean energy known as geothermal power could pose unexpected risks to Colorado's iconic hot springs.

Visitors enjoy a winter dip in Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (Credit: Adobe Stock)

Shemin Ge remembers a winter drive she took around Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ice had formed over the trees, and a blanket of snow lay over the landscape.

Then Ge saw something surprising in the middle of all that white.

“[There was] snow everywhere, all the way to the rim of the hot springs. There you have steamy things coming out,” said Ge, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU �鶹ӰԺ. “What a beautiful, nice thing to see.”

Ge is a hydrogeologist, a scientist who studies the interactions between water and rock around the planet. In Colorado, she has plenty to explore.

The Colorado Geological Survey reports that the state is home to at least 93 “thermal areas”—places where hot water from underground bubbles up to the surface, forming pools and streams.

Hot springs play an important role in the cultures of many of the West’s Native American groups. They’re also a big draw for locals and tourists alike who enjoy long, leisurely dips with a mountain view.

Why are these relaxing features so common in Colorado?

Like so many things in the West, the answer comes down to the Rocky Mountains. Tens of millions of years ago, collisions between the �鶹ӰԺ tectonic plates caused the ground under the American West to buckle, building the mountains we know today.

That same uplift created a network of cracks and channels in the hard, rocky crust below the region—perfect pathways for toasty water to flow to the surface.

“Earth’s crust is thinner [in the West] compared to the eastern part of the country,” Ge said. “When the crust is thinner, it’s easier for the deep, hot mantle to come up closer to the surface.”

Ge’s own research has explored a modern human activity that could influence these ancient features.

In recent years, energy companies and other entities have begun investigating a potentially abundant source of sustainable power: geothermal energy.

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Geothermal energy can come in many forms, but, in general, people dig deep wells to pump up hot water from underground. Once at the surface, that water can be used to heat floors or sidewalks, or even power turbines and generate electricity.

But when people pump hot water up, they usually replace that liquid with cooler water from the surface. This could, in theory, cool some hot springs down.

In a 2025 paper, Roseanna Neupauer, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at CU �鶹ӰԺ, and Ge explored this idea. The team used computer simulations, or models, to recreate the geological conditions under Colorado’s surface. In particular, the group tested what might happen if people installed a well near Mount Princeton, a hub of geothermal activity near Buena Vista, Colorado.

The possible impacts of that hypothetical well depended on how close it came to hot springs. If the well sat about 650 feet east of a spring, it might lead to cooling, and temperatures could dip by as much as 27 degrees Fahrenheit over the long run.

Ge said that scientists still have a lot of research to do before they can say for sure whether geothermal energy poses risks to Colorado’s hot springs.

But, she added, it’s important to ask the question. Nothing makes a frigid winter day better than a long, relaxing dip in one of Colorado’s many hot springs.

“Geothermal energy is a sustainable, renewable source of energy, and I would love to see it used more,” Ge said. “But we don’t want to cause a negative impact for the people who live nearby.”

Geologist Shemin Ge shares how a source of clean energy known as geothermal power could pose unexpected risks to Colorado's iconic hot springs.

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