Bird Monitoring Protocol for Mangrove Forest Ecosystems

This report is a protocol for strategies to count land birds in the Southeast Region of Florida. Mangrove forest ecosystems create some unique situations, so this is meant to be a guide to assist in monitoring techniques. From Author Introduction: Listed below are the four primary objectives for counting landbirds in the Southeast Region. Each objective is followed by a strategy with alternative approaches for achieving the stated objective. These strategies have been modified to conform with the rather unique situations confronted when monitoring in mangrove forest ecosystems. Regardless of the approach, it is important to remember that the primary objective is to derive baseline information (Objective 1; e.g., species composition and relative abundance) and do it in a manner that will also contribute to other objectives, as well as the development of habitat management plans. To accomplish this, we recommend the use of variable circular plot point counts (see SOP #1 for details). It should also be pointed out that there is nothing magical about conducting counts every year. That is, it is acceptable to skip a year between counts or to divide the work load into a 2-3 year rotation (e.g., year 1 =North Unit, year 2= South Unit) on large management areas or areas with limited personnel. Further, the collection of baseline data on bird species composition and relative abundance can likely be obtained with a minimum of 2-3 years of data. However, a minimum of 5-10 annual years of data may be necessary to estimate population trends.