Songbird monitoring in the Great Lakes Network parks: 2014–2018

Roberts, Samuel; Ladin, Zachary; Tymkiw, Elizabeth; Shriver, W; Gostomski, Ted

doi:10.36967/nrr-2283974

This report presents analyses and summaries of five years (2014–2018) of landbird monitoring data collected in eight Great Lakes Network (GLKN) parks as part of long-term monitoring conducted by the National Park Service’s Inventory and Monitoring Division. Four years of data (2015–2018) are presented for one park. The primary goal of this program is to track long-term trends in population indices for priority landbird species or suites of birds, and to place park trends and other parameters in a regional context. Data are collected annually through point count surveys, with eight parks following standard operating procedures outlined in the Great Lakes Network’s landbird monitoring protocol, and one park following the North American Breeding Bird Survey (NABBS) protocol. The NABBS protocol differs greatly from the network protocol, which prevents a full analysis for that park, but summary statistics are provided. With five years of data, we were able to estimate park-level bird community richness and diversity and population occupancies and densities. Species richness is provided as a simple count of species detected within each park across the five years. We used the vegan package in program R to calculate Simpson’s Index of Diversity. This report focuses on mean occupancy and density estimates across the five years of data collection. We analyzed the point count data using the unmarked package in R to estimate occupancy and density. Over five years of data collection, 2,810 point count surveys were conducted and 171 unique species were detected in eight GLKN parks. The number of breeding bird species detected ranged from 47 to 101 species detected in a single year in a park. All eight parks had a Simpson’s Index of Diversity ≥0.95 (on a scale of 0–1), indicating high levels of diversity in all parks. The mean occupancy and density estimates provide important baseline values for each park for future comparison as the monitoring of these landbird populations continues. A power analysis was also conducted, and those data are presented in a separate report.

Songbird monitoring in the Great Lakes Network parks: 2014–2018

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