BIRDS
NC Bird Atlas 2024 Third Quarter Update by Scott Anderson, Science Support Coordinator
T he NC Bird Atlas has completed its fourth of five breeding seasons. We have two wintering seasons and one breeding season of data collection to complete. This volunteer-based effort to document breeding and wintering birds has mobilized 2,771 birders (Atlasers) and staff to collect 265,890 checklists with over 3.5 million observations since 2021. Key to this endeavor is spreading survey effort equally across the state, which means collecting data in evenly-distributed pri- ority blocks across the state. This map shows the extent to which “Atlasers” have prioritized these blocks.
But when do we know if we have enough data in a block? We have developed several guidelines to determine if a block is com- plete, but we will highlight one criterion as an indicator of prog- ress—minimum number of species recorded with observed breeding behaviors. To date, 664 (71%) of our priority blocks have met this criterion, almost doubling the number that met it in 2023, when only 336 priority blocks met this criterion. In the coming months, we will not only survey for wintering species, but we will also review the collected data to strategize our approach during the last breeding season of the project. In addition, we will start plans for developing a menu of products to come out of this unprecedented collection of data! We are on track to completing the most comprehensive dataset of breeding and wintering birds in North Carolina—a valu- able resource that will benefit conservation many years into the future.
2023–2024 CODED SPECIES COMPARISON MAP
17 2024 Wildlife Diversity Program Annual Report
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