Research Grants
Each year, we fund research projects about the biology, ecology, and conservation of Illinois birds, through our Kendeigh Grants for Ornithology Research. Researchers can apply for up to $2,000 for their project.
Since 1982, our S. Charles Kendeigh research grants have funded over $40,000 in research on Illinois birds. After the completion of their research, grantees present their results in writing to CCAS as well as give a presentation at a CCAS general meeting (typically the first Thursday in May, the year following the grant award). Thanks to the generous donations of our membership, as of 2022, we’ve been able to increase our grant funding from $1,000 to $2,000 per award.
The 2024 application period is now closed; applications for 2025 will be due at the end of February.
More About Our Research Grants
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Dr. S. Charles Kendeigh, eminent ornithologist, was a renowned professor of zoology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before retiring in 1973, he had advised a total of 51 doctoral students and 65 masters’ students.
He was a charter member, president, and board member of CCAS, president of the Wilson Ornithological Society and the Ecological Society of America, vice president of the American Ornithologists Union (now known as the American Ornithological Society), and co-founder of The Nature Conservancy and Animal Behavior Society.
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A wide variety of research projects have been funded by Kendeigh Grants, ranging from studies of bird behavior to bird physiology, ecology and conservation, nutrition and health, and everything in between! (Find summaries of recent projects on our blog.) For example, researchers have used Kendeigh funds to investigate singing behavior, the growth patterns of young birds, the factors that affect nest parasitism by cowbirds, how birds choose habitats and respond to predators, the population distributions of rare birds, the impacts of prairie restoration on prairie-dependent birds, disease transmission risk at bird feeders, and much, much more. Preference is given to applied projects or those that advance bird conservation, habitat management, or education.
Recipients have also been at a range of institutions, including the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State University, Lincoln Park Zoo, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Generous donations to our Community-Supported Fund for Research, Education, and Conservation allow CCAS to provide support for local researchers each year through our Kendeigh Grants program. If you would like to donate toward the fund, please send a check made out to CCAS to:
PO Box 882
Urbana, IL 61803-0882On the memo line, please write “CCAS Community-Supported Fund.”
You can also donate online!
