ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e91575
A re-survey of winter bird communities in the Oregon Coast Range, USA, initially surveyed in 1968-1970
expand article infoNolan Clements, W. Douglas Robinson
‡ Oregon State University, Corvallis, United States of America
Open Access
Abstract

Long-term changes in bird populations during winter are poorly evaluated in many parts of the world. We re-surveyed forest bird communities during winter in seven large plots originally surveyed from 1968 through 1970, near Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Stanley Anderson counted birds and measured forest plant communities within the forests dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in the Coast Range Mountain foothills. His thesis included plot locations, summaries of vegetation characteristics and point estimates of bird densities for each plot. To our knowledge, the Anderson data represent the oldest structured survey of Pacific Northwest winter forest bird communities with density estimates. Given the paucity of similar data, we re-surveyed his plots after aligning methods with his and adding modern components (distance and time interval sampling) to facilitate comparisons of changes in abundances. We preserved more extensive metadata than were preserved from Anderson's surveys, including georeferenced point count survey locations to facilitate more precisely repeatable future re-surveys.

Original surveys of winter bird populations in the Pacific Northwest, USA, based on georeferenced locations within 7 large plots originally surveyed, 1968-1970. In addition to raw count data of all bird species detected, we include information from distance sampling and time-interval sampling methods. To our knowledge, this is one of the only structured surveys of winter forest bird populations in the Coast Range Mountains, USA.

Keywords
Avian communities, benchmark survey, long-term change in bird abundance, Pacific Northwest