The Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) is an independent non-profit educational, scientific, and conservation

Conservation movement

The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....

 organization in Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, dedicated to the study and conservation of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s. It was formed in 1915 and has published a quarterly journal

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

, The Migrant, since 1930. The organization conducts statewide meetings and its local chapters have regular meetings and field trip

Field trip

A field trip or excursion, known as school trip in the UK and school tour in Ireland, is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment...

s.

Tbe TOS was started by a group of six amateur ornithologists who met at Faucon's French Restaurant in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 on October 7, 1915. A historical marker

Historical marker

A historical marker or historic marker is an indicator such as a plaque or sign to commemorate an event or person of historic interest and to associate that point of interest with a specific locale one can visit.-Description:...

 at the site commemorates the organization's founding.

Annual activities of the organization include annual autumn hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

 counts, spring and fall bird counts, winter raptor

Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

 surveys, and annual Christmas bird count

Christmas Bird Count

The Christmas Bird Count is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by volunteer birders...

s.

The quarterly journal of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, The Migrant, is a repository for sighting reports and articles related to monitoring the status of Tennessee's bird populations. The organization also published the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Tennessee by Charles P. Nicholson (ISBN 0870499874), a compendium on the birds of the state, based on research conducted by TOS members from 1986 through 1991. The atlas includes the first fully documented account of distribution patterns for 170 bird species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 confirmed as breeding in Tennessee, as well as for several unconfirmed or extirpated bird species.