Bird Monitoring:

Badlands and Prairies Bird Conservation Region (BCR 17)

Badlands and Prairies Bird Conservation Region (BCR 17)

The Badlands and Prairies Bird Conservation Region (BCR 17) supports many of the remaining populations of high-priority grassland birds in North America (www.nabci-us.org/bcr17.html).  Many breeding birds of this region are currently identified as priorities for conservation in State Wildlife Action Plans, National Forest Plans and the Partners in Flight North American Landbird Conservation Plan. In 2009, RMBO completed its first BCR-wide monitoring project in the Badlands and Prairies BCR.

Given the ongoing decline of many bird species in this region, there is a critical need for monitoring programs to identify and track species and the causes for their declines as well as for monitoring and maintaining healthy populations.  Successful monitoring provides natural resource managers with data to implement conservation efforts, which prevent further losses and, ideally, increase bird populations.  BCR 17 offers a unique opportunity for grassland bird conservation as extensive areas of native grassland still endure (Pool and Austin 2006).