WANTED: EXPERIENCED BACKYARD BIRD FEEDERS!

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Year 1
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Preliminary Results

PROJECT
WILDBIRD:

General Information

Bird ID by
WhatBird

WHEN YOU WILL MONITOR BIRDS:
(Click here to download a PDF version of the following information.)
(Click here to view a text-only version of this page, for easy printing.)
A survey of birds in an individual’s yard will take place on four different occasions during a single year: fall, winter, spring and summer.The specific dates of the surveys will be based on the peak distribution of birds during breeding, wintering, and the two migratory seasons in your area.

FORMS NEEDED FOR MONITORING BIRDS:
In order to monitor birds, you will need the following forms-personal information form, characteristics of the yard and neighborhood form, birdfeeding habits form, observational protocol (thispacket), and datasheets (4datasheetsforeachfeeder).

MONITORING BIRDS:
Each season, surveyors will be asked to observe birds for a single eight-day period. The beginning and ending day of the eight day segment is optional, but must include an eight, consecutive day period. During the eight-day segment, surveyors will record their observations for two total hours during four different occasions lasting 25 minutes each.

Make a concerted effort to begin monitoring birds at a time that birds are most likely to be at feeders. The exact times for observations may be based on previous feeding experiences. When have birds come to your feeders in the past? With this information, monitoring should be done at those times.

MAINTAINING FEEDERS:
Feeders should be cleaned regularly and kept cleared of leaves, snow, seed hulls and other debris. Always fill your feeders with dry seed.

Make sure the seed ports are not clogged with seed shells or other debris.

Feeders should be filled to the top daily, or in the case of platform feeders, filled so that seed evenly covers all parts of the feeder.

Feeders must be filled with the same seed or seed mixture during the 8-day session.

MAMMALSAND BIRD PREDATORS:
During the monitoring period, no mammals shouldbe allowed on the feeders as the presence of mammals may prohibit the use of feeders by birds.

Mammals can be on the ground below the feeders, but they cannot be on the feeders themselves.

Any legal and ethical means can be used to dissuade mammals from using the feeders during monitoring.

If a mammal gains access to a feeder during the observation period, they must be scared away before monitoring can continue.

After the mammal has left the feeder, do not monitor for five minutes after the mammal has left, and add five minutes to the observation period.

If a hawk passes by or a cat is near the feeder, the predator must leave the area before monitoring can continue. After the predator has left the area, do not monitor for five minutes after the predator has left, and add five minutes to the observation period.

DATA COLLECTION:
Over  the  course  of  eight  days,  you  will  monitor  birds  during  four  separate  periods.  Each  25-minute monitoring period must be separated by at least three hours (i.e.,If you began a monitoring period at 9:00 AM on Saturday, the earliest you could conduct another monitoring period would be 12:25 PM on Saturday). You can conduct no more than two monitoring periods in a single day.

Each monitoring period must last for 25 minutes. During the 25-minute period, you will record the number of birds of each species observed at each feeder (and birdbath) in your yard every 5 minutes. Thus, when your 25-minute monitoring period begins you will record the number of birds of each species observed at each feeder (and birdbath). You will make six total observations of each of your feeders (and birdbaths) during the 25-minute period.

The starting time for the 25-minute period should be selected without knowledge of whether birds are at your feeders at the starting time or not (i.e., select a start time of 9:00 AM as opposed to beginning observations when there are birds at your feeders). Once a monitoring period has begun, observations are to continue for 25 minutes whether birds are at the feeders or not.

Example: Let's say you began a monitoring period at 7:45 AM. The only bird you see is a dark-eyed junco and it is underneath a platform feeder. In this case, you would not record a dark-eyed junco (or any other species) as being at your feeder, because a bird is defined as being at the feeder only if it is physically on the feeder including the roof of a feeder. Thus, you would enter 0 dark-eyed juncos (and 0 for all other species) on your data sheet for observation 1. At 7:50 AM, you would once again record the number birds of each species observed at each feeder. You observe one dark-eyed junco on the platform feeder, and you would record one dark-eye junco on the data sheet for observation 2. At 7:55 AM, you observe two dark-eyed juncos on the platform feeder and record two juncos on your data sheet for observation 3.

At 8:00 AM, you observe two northern cardinals at your platform feeder, and thus, would record those two cardinals on your data sheet for observation 4. Because there are no juncos at the platform feeder at 8:00 AM, you would record 0 juncos as being seen during observation 4 (as well as 0 for all other species). At 8:05, you observe one northern cardinal at the feeder, and record one cardinal on your data sheet for observation 5. Finally, at 8:10 AM, you observe one northern cardinal and one dark-eyed junco on the feeder, and thus you record 1 of each species on your data sheet for observation 6.

Thus after 25 minutes, you have made 6 observations of the birds at your feeder, with each observation spaced 5 minutes apart.

A separate data sheet is necessary for each feeder in your yard during each monitoring period. Completed data sheets are to be submitted through the internet for analysis after each monitoring period. After electronic submission of the data, you will be given the opportunity to double check your internet entries with the entries on the data sheet.

Do  not  deviate  from  the  above  counting  procedure  and  maintain  consistency  in  your  counting methods throughout the study!

Do not record a species as being present at a feeder unless you have positively identified the species. Make notes about your observation in case you positively identify the species at a later date. Record the bird's size, field marks, and attempt to take a picture of the bird. After recording field marks, use the bird identification tool on the PROJECT WILDBIRD website or contact the Project Coordinator for assistance.

What happens if the protocol isn't followed?
It is critical that the protocol for the study be followed in order to collect the data necessary to address the objectives of PROJECT WILDBIRD. However, errors in data entry are possible, even with professionals. Mistakes and omissions can happen, and missing values are better than guesses or cover-ups. The most damaging outcome occurs when errors are not acknowledged. If the protocol isn't followed, please contact the Project Coordinator.