Breeding Landbird Monitoring in Northeast Temperate Network parks

Skilled volunteer birders look and listen for birds in network park forests.

 

Download the program brief.

Overview

This is a volunteer-based, long-term monitoring program for forest breeding birds. Grassland bird monitoring also takies place at parks where this is significant habitat (currently Saratoga NHP and Minute Man NHP).

Birds are important components of park ecosystems. It has been suggested that management activities aimed at preserving habitat for bird populations can have the added benefit of preserving entire ecosystems. Birds are also very popular among park visitors, and many parks provide information on the status and trends of their avian community through interpretive materials and programs.

The Network partnered with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) Vermont Forest Bird Monitoring Program, a regional landbird monitoring project. This allows data from some Network parks to be combined with data from VCE's 28 Vermont study sites for more powerful estimates of population trends. This also provides an opportunity to make inferences related to changes beyond park boundaries.

Learn more about volunteer bird monitoring opportunties here.

Appalachian Trail Bird Monitoring

Mountain birds, a specific category of breeding birds, are a primary interest of A.T. resource managers. Mountain birds are dependent upon montane spruce-fir forests, an uncommon habitat type in northern New England. Though rare in the region, it is the dominant forest type along approximately 225 kilometers (140 miles) of the trail in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Partnering with existing forest, mountain, and other bird monitoring programs provides an opportunity to make inferences about A.T. resources from beyond the trail corridor. This is critically important for A.T. because activities and actions that happen on adjacent lands exert a greater influence on the relatively narrow ribbon of land that comprises the trail than might be the case for parks with greater land area to perimeter ratios. An example of a regional monitoring effort that combines A.T. interests with those on adjacent lands is the partnership with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies to implement a mountain bird monitoring protocol to help guide management decisions affecting bird populations inhabiting high elevation habitats.

 

Participating Parks

Acadia National Park, Appalachian Trail, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, Minute Man NHP, Morristown NHP, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS, Saint-Gaudens NHS, Saratoga NHP, Saugus Iron Works NHS, Weir Farm NHS

 

Northeast Temperate Network Breeding Landbird Monitoring Materials

Click on the links below to view protocols, reports, briefs, and other materials

 

Breeding Landbird Protocols

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Source: Data Store Saved Search 1453. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Reports

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Source: Data Store Saved Search 2272. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Briefs

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Source: Data Store Saved Search 2275. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Volunteer Materials

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Source: Data Store Saved Search 2274. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Data Forms

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Source: Data Store Saved Search 2273. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Northeast Temperate Network Breeding Landbird Monitoring Sites

 

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Northeast Temperate Network Staff Contacts for Breeding Landbird Monitoring

Program Manager: Aaron Weed
Data Manager: Adam Kozlowski
Landbird Monitoring Coordinator:: Ed Sharron