Birds

Many birders have a set of favourite locations they visit depending on the season or species they wish to observe. As enjoyable as it is to revisit these special spots, this type of sampling doesn’t lead to effective provincial monitoring.

At the ABMI, we monitor a systematic grid of 1,656 sites that are evenly distributed across the province. This allows us to monitor all the unique habitats that exist in our province. At each location, we deploy several ARUs, that record at set intervals throughout the day and retrieve them after several months of activity. This approach has two key benefits:

1) The recording can be reviewed multiple times to ensure proper species identification; and

2) This extended sampling effort increases the probability of detecting a species.

All of our recordings are uploaded to our WildTrax platform where they are heard by trained technicians. For each recording, the technicians track information about species identification, when a species vocalized, if one or many individuals were calling, the type of vocalization (e.g., song, call), and the confidence in their identification. This allows us to better control the quality of our data compared to observations made in the field.

These observations are essential for us to develop our species-habitat models. Our models allow us to identify the habitats each species uses, and how they are distributed throughout the province. We can then use this information to inform environmental management planning and response.

We also have targeted survey efforts in habitats that are underrepresented in our systematic grid. This includes collaborations with groups such as Oil Sands Monitoring (OSM) and their hierarchical before-after dose-response (BADR) design, to the Boreal Avian Modelling Project, which allows us to use historical data collected through programs like the Breeding Bird Survey.