Point Count Routes for 2017!
Priority Point Count Routes for 2017
The routes above are available for the 2017 field season. With these routes completed in 2017, we’ll have completed our coverage on schedule and we’ll be ready to make our first estimates of population change in the city.
Identify some routes that you might be interested in, and then contact us to adopt one (or more).
I’m looking for information on my adopted point count routes
What is a Point Count?
A point count is a very common way to collect rigorously standardized observations of birds at many different locations across the city. Each of our point count routes has 6 -12 individual counts. At each of those counts, an observer stands at the pre-determined location and records all of the birds seen or heard during a ten-minute period. The routes are surveyed once each year during our field season (May 24 – July 7), early in the morning on a day chosen by the observer. This program is similar to the North American Breeding Bird Survey but with much shorter routes.
What can we learn? Point Count Program
Data from the point count program are used to get an idea of how each bird species is distributed across the city and to look for changes in bird populations over time.
How Can I Adopt a Point Count Route?
There are two ways to adopt a point count route, and each requires a few hours of your time, one morning per year:
1. If you can easily identify the 70 most common bird species in the city by sight and by sound, then you’re ready to survey a route. Contact us below and we’ll find you a route. Detailed methods for point counts.
2. If you’re not that confident in your bird identification skills, that’s OK too. You can survey a point count route with one of our high-quality stereo recorders. Contact us below and we’ll find you a route and lend you a recorder. Detailed methods for point counts with audio recorders