Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for April–June 2026
Fifty Years of Monitoring Waterbirds – The North Carolina Colonial Waterbird Survey Celebrates a Milestone
by Carmen Johnson, Waterbird Biologist; Sean Devine, Isabella Lacourrege, & Brittni McGuire, Waterbird Technicians
T his year, 2026, marks the 50th Anniversary of the North Carolina Colonial Waterbird Survey, a triennial survey used to monitor the status and distribution of nesting colonial waterbirds in the state. Throughout May and June, NCWRC, the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, North Carolina State Parks, the United States Marine Corps, Audubon NC, and the Bald Head Island Conservancy have been counting nests up and down the North Carolina coast. The survey was established in 1976 by Dr. James Parnell, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, with the goal of assessing the size of colonial waterbird breed- ing populations in the state amid concerns over pesticide con- tamination and habitat loss. The 1976 survey was disrupted by weather, so Dr. Parnell surveyed again in 1977 to get a higher quality count. Over the last 50 years, the survey has informed the management of waterbirds in North Carolina by producing valuable data on how the nesting population of each species has changed in the state. The data from this year will be entered into the Colonial Waterbird Database managed by NCWRC, as well as the Avian Knowledge Network, a data-sharing effort which seeks to understand broader scale changes in the distri- bution and status of waterbirds along the Atlantic Flyway.
CARMEN JOHNSON/NCWRC
NCWRC technicians Sean Devine and Brittni McGuire, along with volun- teer, Marcia Lyons, survey a Royal and Sandwich Tern colony on a shoal in Pamlico Sound.
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A Royal Tern and Sandwich Tern colony.
BRITTNI MCGUIRE/NCWRC
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