Improving Survey Methods to Better Detect Rare Grassland Birds in South Dakota

Authors

Kassy Hendricks, South Dakota State University
Kristel K. Bakker, Dakota State University
Chuck Dieter, Dakota State University

Files

Description

• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data for grassland bird populations has shown the most rapid decline of any 0ther bird group due to the continual loss and fragmentation of grassland habitat (Sauer et al. 2013, Askins et al. 2007).
• Roadside surveys such as BBS may be providing inaccurate assessments of population trends.
• Some grassland birds occur on few BBS routes, occur in low numbers per route, or show high year-to-year fluctuations in number (Dale et al. 2005).
• Some species may exhibit an apparent aversion to or are attracted to roadsides. (Wellicome et al. 2014).
• Habitat near roads may not be representative of the region (Niemuth et al. 2007).
• State BBS trend data is classified as having low credibility for rare grassland birds due to small sample size, low abundance, or imprecise results suggesting that improvements to methodology are necessary.

Publication Date

2017

Recommended Citation

Hendricks, Kassy; Bakker, Kristel K.; and Dieter, Chuck, "Improving Survey Methods to Better Detect Rare Grassland Birds in South Dakota" (2017). Annual Research Symposium. 52.
https://scholar.dsu.edu/research-symposium/52