with NYSDEC Wildlife Biologist Josh Stiller

Sponsored by UCALL and the Kelly Adirondack Center

February 12, 2026 • 7 p.m.
Webinar Link

This is not an in-person event.

Free and open to the public

Most people in New York when asked to picture a duck, they’re thinking of a mallard – the green head, the quack, the pond. However, that wasn’t always the case in New York. Just 90-100 years ago, mallards were not known to breed in New York State. How times have changed. Since the ban of live decoys in the 1930s, mallards have been released and taken over as the preeminent duck of the northern Atlantic flyway. After all-time highs in the early 2000s, we have seen significant declines in eastern mallards. NYSDEC and 21 other partner agencies and NGOs have set out to understand what may be driving these declines. New York State DEC has deployed over 2,500 transmitters and geolocators to understand individual and population success of eastern mallards and what drives it.

Josh Stiller coordinates the statewide migratory and upland game bird program for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Josh’s duties involve not only working with biologists within the state on bird issues, but also biologists from all over North America as migratory birds are a shared resource with other states and other countries.