Moving Ahead on a Continental-Scale Marsh Bird Monitoring Framework

Marsh-dwelling waterbirds are difficult to survey. Many species are inconspicuous -- cryptically-colored with secretive behaviors -- and marshes, depending on the size and season, can be quite inaccessible. Population sizes and trends for many species are largely unknown, yet they face a host of conservation concerns including continued habitat loss and fragmentation, sea level rise eliminating coastal wetlands, and the influence of various marsh management practices.

Principles
Waterbird Conservation for the Americas supports the monitoring goals described in Opportunities for Improving Avian Monitoring, a document created by the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative (U.S. NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee. In particular, when a monitoring program is initiated, the management or policy objectives should be explicit and coordinated among stakeholders, and the monitoring should be designed at an appropriate scale, scope, and intensity to address the objectives.

Focal Species
Primary target species are Black, Clapper, King, Sora, Virginia, and Yellow rails, Least and American bitterns, Common Moorhen, Purple Gallinule, American Coot, and Limpkin. Secondary target species are Wilson’s Snipe, Pied-billed Grebe, among others.

Standardized Survey Protocols
The Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit has spearheaded development and testing of standardized protocols for monitoring secretive marshbirds for the last decade. In fact, work on protocols launched a National Marsh Bird Monitoring Program of central coordination, trainings, data management and analysis involving almost 200 participants.

Data Management System
USGS Patuxent National Wildlife Research Center now houses the official repository for marsh bird survey data collected with the standardized survey protocols. This site provides data management capabilities for participants to manage their survey results & information.

Sampling Design
The USFWS-Division of Migratory Bird Management, in cooperation with multiple partners, is conducting a multi-year pilot study (2008 to 2010/2011) to examine the feasibility of a secretive marshbird survey program that allows for inference to population status at multiple scales including regions, flyways, and continent-wide. Read summary.

This approach is based on recommendations presented in A Sampling Design Framework for Monitoring Secretive Marsh Birds [Johnson et al., Waterbirds 32(2): 203-215, 2009]

Sampling Design Pilot Study Contacts
States involved in the pilot study for the marshbird survey sampling design include:

Wisconsin: Ryan Brady, Wisconsin DNR. See Wisconsin Marshbird Survey website.

Idaho: Colleen Moulton, Idaho Fish and Game. See Bird Monitoring in Idaho website.

Kentucky: John Brunjes, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

New York: Carrie Osborne, New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Florida: Elena Sachs, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. See Florida Bird Conservation Initiative website.

Additional Marsh Bird Monitoring Links

Monitoring is included in Priority Information Needs for Rails and Snipe: A Funding Strategy which contains recommendations for obtaining priority information needed to reduce the uncertainties in harvest management decisions for rails and snipe.

Tri-national efforts on marshbird monitoring were summarized in a presentation at the XIII Meeting of the Canada/Mexico/United States Trilateral Committee, Veracruz, Mexico, 14 May 2008

Bird Studies Canada Marsh Monitoring Program focuses on Great Lakes Recovery

First Central American Workshop of Swamp (Marsh) Birds Monitoring

2006 Marsh Bird Monitoring Technical Workshop, a follow-up to the 1998 workshop, was held to further progress towards the development of an operational monitoring program for marsh birds in North America.

1998 Marsh Bird Monitoring Workshop was held at the Patuxent National Wildlife Research Center to discuss strategies for monitoring populations of marsh birds (Ribic et al. 1999).