Landbird monitoring protocol for the National Capital Region Network: Revision 2.0, 2023

Shriver, Gregory; Tymkiw, Elizabeth; Redmond, Hannah; Roberts, Samuel; Ladin, Zachary; Dawson, Deana

doi:10.36967/2312879

The National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program conducts long-term ecological monitoring of high-priority indicator resources, deemed “vital signs.” This protocol documents the justification and procedure for monitoring breeding landbirds, a vital sign, in one of the 32 ecoregional I&M networks, the National Capital Region Network (NCRN). “Landbird” refers to the many avian species that spend the majority of their lives in a terrestrial environment, including tree-dwelling birds, perching birds or songbirds, raptors, and ground-feeding birds. Landbird monitoring in the National Capital Region is conducted in both forest and grassland habitats throughout all 11 park units in the network. The mission of the National Park Service is to preserve “unimpaired the natural and cultural resources” of the over 85 million acres of park land throughout the U.S. This management objective underlies the impetus behind implementing long-term monitoring within each I&M network. The NPS established five common programmatic goals for all 32 networks within the I&M program as they plan, design, and implement integrated natural resource monitoring (Fancy et al. 2009). These goals are to: 1) determine the status and trends of selected indicators of park ecosystem conditions to make better-informed decisions and to work more effectively with other agencies and individuals for the benefit of park resources; 2) provide early warning of abnormal conditions of selected resources to help develop effective mitigation measures and reduce costs of management; 3) provide data to better understand the dynamic nature and condition of park ecosystems and to provide reference points for comparisons with other, altered environments; 4) provide data to meet certain legal and Congressional mandates related to natural resource protection and visitor enjoyment; and 5) provide a means of measuring progress towards performance goals. Landbird monitoring in the NCRN employs point count surveys to quantify the avian populations within each park. Point counts are a commonly used survey method that allows for both visual and auditory detections of individual birds and allows multiple surveys to be conducted in the same morning. For the NCRN Landbird Monitoring Protocol, point count surveys are conducted annually within forest and grassland habitats from mid-May through July. The NCRN Landbird Monitoring Protocol consists of a Narrative (this document) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) outlining in-depth instructions for: (1) field season preparation, (2) field methods/sampling, (3) data analyses, and (4) database management.

Landbird monitoring protocol for the National Capital Region Network: Revision 2.0, 2023

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