Northeast Temperate Network breeding landbird monitoring protocol: 2011 revision

Faccio, Steven; Mitchell, Brian; Pooler, Penelope

This protocol has been developed for long-term monitoring of forest breeding bird populations within the National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) as part of the Inventory & Monitoring Program (IM). NETN consists of 13 parks, including the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (APPA). Excluding APPA, the parks total approximately 18,500 ha, with diverse cultural and natural resources. They range in size from just 4 ha at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site (SAIR), located near densely populated Boston, Massachusetts, to over 15,800 ha at Maine’s Acadia National Park (ACAD). On a broad scale, most NETN parks are located within the temperate deciduous forest biome, and fall within two avifaunal biomes (the Eastern and Northern Forest) as defined by Partners in Flight (PIF) (Rich et al. 2004). At a finer scale, the parks range across four Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs) (Figure 1). BCRs, developed by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI 2000), are ecologically defined units that provide a consistent spatial framework for bird conservation across North American landscapes. By employing broad scale units that are ecologically meaningful to bird populations, conservation efforts can be tailored to support groups of species throughout the heart of their ranges. Bird Conservation Regions are being used to help assign “conservation priority” scores for bird species. Each BCR has its own unique list of “priority” species ranked by conservation importance according to a standardized set of criteria determined by partners from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Birds are an important component of park ecosystems, and their high body temperature, rapid metabolism, and prominent position in most food webs make them a good indicator of local and regional ecosystem change. It has been suggested that management activities aimed at preserving habitat for bird populations, such as for neotropical migrants, can have the added benefit of preserving entire ecosystems and their attendant ecosystem services (Karr 1991, Maurer 1993). Moreover, birds are a high profile taxa, and many parks provide information on the status and trends of the park’s avian community through their interpretive materials and programs. In developing comprehensive long-term monitoring plans, landbirds (a general term used to describe relatively small, terrestrial birds, excluding raptors and upland game birds) are among the best taxonomic groups to monitor because: 1) they are the most easily and inexpensively detected and identified vertebrate animals, 2) a single survey method is effective for many species, 3) accounting and managing for many species with different ecological requirements promotes conservation strategies at the landscape scale (Hutto and Young 2002), 4) many reference datasets and standard methods are available (Ralph et al. 1993, 1995), and 5) the response variables are fairly well understood. In addition, birds are a useful biotic indicator of the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. While direct loss of habitat due to development is a primary threat to landbird populations, Neotropical migrants appear to be particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation (Robinson and Wilcove 1994, Faaborg et al. 1995, Rosenberg et al. 1999). Forest fragmentation increases the prevalence of forest edges, resulting in higher rates of brood parasitism and nest predation within the remaining breeding habitat (Robinson et al. 1995). It is an ecological stressor that impacts all NETN parks due to the relatively small size of the parks and their land use histories. Although the NPS has some management control over fragmentation within the parks, fragmentation and habitat loss outside park boundaries is widespread throughout much of the Northeastern region.

Northeast Temperate Network breeding landbird monitoring protocol: 2011 revision

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