Finnish Citizen Science Based Bird Monitoring Schemes and User Interfaces in FinBIF

Monitoring of bird populations is based primarily on volunteer birdwatcher activity in Finland. Hence, development of online user interfaces and data availability have become a priority in order to encourage bird watchers to participate in monitoring schemes. Most Finnish bird monitoring is managed by the Finnish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS, which oversees a wide spectrum of long-running programs including: a bird ringing (banding) scheme running since 1913, a winter bird census established in 1956, a breeding bird census initiated in 1975, a raptor monitoring program started in 1982, and, a nest recording scheme ongoing since the 1940s. In 2018, more than 1,500 volunteer birdwatchers participated in LUOMUS bird monitoring schemes. Data gathered from these programs constitute our basis of knowledge on national bird populations and demographic trends and are actively incorporated in conservation, scientific, land-use planning, and administrative purposes in Finland. In principle, all data are open and freely accessible via the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF), however, the law prohibits authorities from distributing species occurrence data if this causes an increased threat to certain endangered species. Accordingly, sensitive data details are not available. Reporting valuable fieldwork data can sometimes be demanding. As such, developing user-friendly interfaces for data portals is critical to facilitating volunteer activity. Essential tools for volunteers include a simple login, smooth and augmented data input, automated validation of data, and, perhaps most importantly, ease of access to up-to-date data. Crucial to administrators are system reliability, operability, and easy data management. Comprehensive data validation and visualization tools and extensive search functions aid in revealing errors and thereby increase data quality. Finally, simple query tools and easy access to data are of paramount importance for smooth abd flexible use of the data. Keeping in mind these demands, we have developed the main FinBIF platform and project-specific user interfaces in order to facilitate participation in bird monitoring programs. We will introduce these user interfaces and our achievements and challenges in the development process.

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Breeding Bird Popluations in Grand Teton National Park: Density and Distribution

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.1995.3233 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 19-23

Author(s):

Martin Cody

Keyword(s):

Data Base ◽

National Park ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Grand Teton National Park ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Bird Monitoring ◽

Census Techniques ◽

Monitoring Protocols ◽

Changes Over Time

GTNP (Grand Teton National Park) recently initiated a breeding bird monitoring program, with a view toward assessing population densities of breeding birds and their potential changes, both of residents and neotropical migrants; the 1995 season was the first in which the monitoring protocols of the program were fully instigated. The program goals are the monitoring of both species and densities over a broad range of habitats within the park, with a view to detecting changes over time in these variables, in year-to-year "background" variation and in possible long-term trends. Site selection, mapping and marking, and deployment of various bird census techniques, will be completed and refined over three introductory years, 1995-1997. Thence, it is anticipated that the monitoring program will become permanently established, contributing yearly to an expanding data base on the park's breeding bird populations. This data base, it is believed, will become a useful backup and basis for management decisions, and an increasingly sensitive index from which changes in the park's avifauna, natural or anthropogenic, can be calibrated.

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Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.1996.3273 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 35-38

Author(s):

Martin Cody

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Information Source ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Bird Species ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Grand Teton National Park ◽

Subalpine Fir ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Breeding Populations ◽

Jackson Hole

This report covers year 2 of a three year project, 1995-1997 inclusive, to instigate a permanent program of monitoring landbird species composition and densities in a variety of representative habitats within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Habitats range from grassland and sagebrush on the valley floor of Jackson Hole (around 1900 m) through a range of scrub, woodland, and tall foothill forest vegetation types to montane sites of subalpine fir and tundra (ca. 3000 m). The monitoring program is intended to provide data on year-to-year fluctuations in breeding bird species and densities, and document longer-term changes (if any) in the local avifauna of resident and migratory species. The data base will document variability in size of breeding populations among years, local shifts in distribution and abundance over habitat types, and potentially form an information source on which management and conservation decisions might be based.

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GTNP Breeding Bird Monitoring Project 2001 Season

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.2001.3449 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 25 ◽

pp. 31-43

Author(s):

M. Cody

Keyword(s):

Breeding Bird ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Topographic Features ◽

Area 5 ◽

Bird Monitoring ◽

Jackson Hole ◽

History Of ◽

Study Sites ◽

Land Bird ◽

Independent Work

Overview: GTNP Breeding Bird Monitoring Project: 1. Following initial independent work by M. L. Cody and by funding from NPS, we instigated a scheme for long-term monitoring of breeding land bird populations in a wide variety of habitats representative of the northern Rockies and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Census sites are located almost entirely within Grand Teton National Park, where a broad range of representative vegetation types is accessible within close geographic proximity. 2. 30 monitoring sites are established within and adjacent to the park in pristine habitat. Sites range from the Jackson Hole lowlands to subalpine and alpine sites, from meadow, sagebrush and marshland, through willow scrub, cottonwood and aspen woodlands, to lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests. Some sites have a monitoring history of >30y; others were established in the mid-1990's. 3. The location and accessibility of the study sites permits all to be regularly and repeatedly censused during the short (6-week) breeding season. Census sites are standardized in area ( 5- 10 ha in size) and mapped in detail (topographic features, vegetation). Census schedules, timing, and methodological protocols are established, and allow for controlled inter-site and inter-year comparisons in breeding bird populations, species composition, and densities.

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Snow Meltout Dates and Breeding Density in Brewer's Sparrows (Spizella Breweri)

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.2008.3691 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 19-21

Author(s):

Martin Cody

Keyword(s):

Census Data ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Bird Species ◽

Common Species ◽

Breeding Density ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Data Set ◽

Bird Monitoring ◽

Fixed Area ◽

Spizella Breweri

We have conducted a breeding bird monitoring program in GTNP since the early 1990s, utilizing fixed-area census sites of around 5 ha in size. The sites are located throughout the park in all habitat types and elevations, and number 30 in all. Some have been censused each year in June, at the height of the breeding season, others have been censused repeatedly but more sporadically, and others less frequently. the power of these census data to interpret variation in bird species, composition and breeding densities, species to species, site to site and especially year to year, clearly increases with the longevity of the data set. With the data from some sites now covering 18 successive years (1991-2008), it is possible to attempt some interpretation of the bird species variables. One such is reported here. The influence of snow meltout date on breeding density of a common species of the sagebrush flats, Brewer's Sparrow Spizella breweri.

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Grand Teton National Park Breeding Bird Monitoring Project

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.2000.3407 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 23-30

Author(s):

Martin Cody

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Grand Teton National Park ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Area 5 ◽

Bird Monitoring ◽

Jackson Hole ◽

Study Sites ◽

Land Bird ◽

Independent Work

Overview: GTNP Breeding Bird Monitoring Project. 1. Following initial independent work by M. L. Cody and 3y funding from NPS, we instigated a scheme for long-term monitoring of breeding land bird populations in a wide variety of habitats representative of the northern Rockies and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Census sites are located almost entirely within Grand Teton National Park, where a broad range of representative vegetation types is accessible within close geographic proximity. 2. 30 monitoring sites are established within and adjacent to the park in pristine habitat. Sites range from the Jackson Hole lowlands to subalpine and alpine sites, from meadow, sagebrush and marshland, through willow scrub, cottonwood and aspen woodlands, to lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests. Some sites have a monitoring history of >30 y; others were established in the mid-1990's. 3. The location and accessibility of the study sites permits all to be regularly and repeatedly censused during the short (6-week) breeding season. Census sites are standardized in area (5-10 ha in size) and mapped in detail (topographic features, vegetation). Census schedules, timing, and methodological protocols are established, and allow for controlled inter-site and inter-year comparisons in breeding bird populations, species composition, and densities.

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GTNP Breeding Bird Monitoring Project: The 1999 Season

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.1999.3377 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 88-92

Author(s):

M. Cody

Keyword(s):

Data Base ◽

National Park ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Bird Monitoring ◽

Jackson Hole ◽

Northern Rockies ◽

Study Sites ◽

Land Bird

Overview: GTNP Breeding Bird Monitoring Project. 1. Following initial independent work by M. L. Cody and 3y funding from NPS, we have instigated a scheme for long-term monitoring of breeding land bird populations in a wide variety of habitats representative of the northern Rockies and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Census sites are located almost entirely within Grand Teton National Park, where a broad range of representative vegetation types is accessible within close geographic proximity. 2. Some 30 monitoring sites are established within and adjacent to the park in pristine habitat. Sites range from the Jackson Hole lowlands to subalpine and alpine sites, from meadow, sagebrush and marshland, through willow scrub, cottonwood and aspen woodlands, to lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests. Some sites have a monitoring history of > 30 y; others were established in the mid-1990's. 3. The location and accessibility of the study sites permits all to be regularly and repeatedly censused during the short (6-week) breeding season. Census sites are standardized in area (5-10 ha in size) and mapped in detail (topographic features, vegetation). Census schedules, turung, and methodological protocols will be established and maintained, providing for strictly controlled inter-site and inter-year comparisons in breeding bird populations, species composition, and densities. 4. To evaluate the local versus more regional nature of inter-year variation in bird densities, one widespread habitat (willows) is replicated and censused at locations outside GTNP, in the northern Rockies (Glacier National Park) and central Rockies (Rocky Mountain National Park). 5. The project entails only modest costs (e.g. for transportation), but the projected benefits to science, specifically to resource management, will continue to accumulate as the data base is expanded in future years. As no comparable data base or monitoring scheme exists for the region, the value of the GTNP is apparent, and ensuring its continuance is of critical importance.

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Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.1994.3187 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 18 ◽

pp. 42-45

Author(s):

Martin Cody

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Bird Species ◽

Migratory Species ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Grand Teton National Park ◽

Subalpine Fir ◽

Bird Populations ◽

Jackson Hole ◽

Management And Conservation

The central aim of this project is to instigate a permanent program of monitoring landbird species composition and densities in a variety of representative habitats within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Habitats range from grassland and sagebrush on the valley floor of Jackson Hole (around 1900 m) through a range of scrub, woodland, and tall foothill forest vegetation types to montane sites of subalpine fir and tundra (ca. 3000 m). The monitoring program will provide data on year-to-year fluctuations in breeding bird species and densities, and eventually on any longer-term changes in the local avifauna, of both resident and migratory species; the data base will further understanding of population variability, local shifts in distribution and abundance, and potentially form a source for management and conservation decisions.

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