Bird Population Monitoring

Because birds occupy a broad range of habitats, are sensitive to physical and chemical changes, and often reflect the abundance and diversity of other organisms with which they coexist, they are useful for monitoring broad effects of human activities on the environment. A strong and growing interest exists in the Intermountain/ Great Plains region to manage and conserve bird populations, many of which are experiencing long-term population declines. Bird monitoring serves as an “early warning” system that can identify negative trends, enabling interested citizens and land managers to rapidly intervene with conservation practices that support the long-term viability of species.

Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory’s monitoring programs aim to determine local and regional population status and trends for many species and detect any negative trends in time to identify causes and reduce threats. Our core programs are designed to obtain count-based data for diurnal breeding bird species using a randomized, spatially-balanced sampling design. For other rare, colonial or non-breeding species, we design custom species-specific programs to collect distribution, abundance and trend information.

Visit RMBO’s Avian Data Center to find monitoring publications, real-time information on species distribution, raw count data queries, general species/habitat associations and species accounts.

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Regional Programs

State Programs

National Forest Programs

National Park Service (NPS) Programs

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Projects

Specialized Programs