PRBO Conservation Science 2005 vector digital data Petaluma, CA PRBO Conservation Science http://www.prbo.org/cadc/songbird/ In many countries, point counts are the main method in monitoring the population changes of breeding landbirds. With the point count method it is possible to study the yearly changes of bird populations at fixed points, differences in species composition between habitats, and abundance patterns of species. The point count method is probably the most efficient and data-rich method of counting birds. It is the preferred method in forested habitats or difficult terrain. Point counts involve an observer standing in one spot and recording all the birds seen or heard at either a fixed distance, or unlimited distance. This method can be conducted one or many times at a given point. The North American Breeding Bird Survey of the U.S.D.I. Fish and Wildlife Service is such a method.* These data come from PRBO point count locations throughout the western United States for surveys conducted by trained observers between 1991 and the present. As of 2005, there were over 10,000 point count locations (sites) in 43 projects in a variety of habitats. As new surveys are added on a yearly basis, this database is constantly being updated. All counts were 5 minutes duration and data were collected which denote, at least, whether individuals were within 50 m of the observer. All species were recorded. For more information on field protocols please see http://www.prbo.org/cadc/songbird/pc.php. *Excerpted from Ralph, C J; Geupel, G R; Pyle, P; Martin, T E; DeSante, D F. 1993. Handbook of field methods for monitoring landbirds. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-144. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 41 p. (http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/gtr-144/06-censusing.html) Point count surveys measure bird abundance and diversity and can be used to measure habitat sustainability, population trends, and habitat associations in bird populations. Aside from providing the bird species and numbers detected at each point count location, this dataset is also a record of the location of point count locations so that surveys can be repeated in subsequent years. For more information on point counts (eg, background information, methodologies, data forms, and field protocols) see http://www.prbo.org/cadc/songbird/pc.php. 1991 current ground condition In work Continually PRBO point count locations throughout the western United States. -123.069489 -109.342559 48.990540 32.849533 0 3000 meters CSA-NBII Biocomplexity Thesaurus (http://thesaurus.nbii.gov/SearchNBIIThesaurus/) BIRDS SONGBIRDS POPULATION DYNAMICS BIODIVERSITY BIOMONITORING BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION COUNTING METHODS ABUNDANCE (ORGANISMS) CIESIN Indexing Vocabulary (http://www.ciesin.org/metadata/documentation/vocab/introv.html) NORTH AMERICA UNITED STATES WESTERN UNITED STATES OREGON NEVADA ARIZONA WASHINGTON IDAHO CALIFORNIA WYOMING None multiple species birds American Ornithologists' Union 1998 Seventh book http://www.aou.org/checklist/index.php3 The check-list is revised and updated on an annual basis by the American Ornithologists' Union. Revisions are published in The Auk. Observers have pre-existing knowledge of bird identification or they use published field guides. Birds. Kingdom Animalia animals Phylum Chordata chordates Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates Class Aves birds Point count locations (lat and long) are PRBO property. User must receive written permission from PRBO before using or sharing this information. PRBO Conservation Science Chris Rintoul Informatics Specialist mailing and physical

3820 Cypress Drive, #11

Petaluma CA 94954 US 707-781-2555 crintoul@prbo.org PRBO Conservation Science. Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.2.1350 Shapefile. not applicable All points collected before the year 2000 are accurate to within 30 meters, while points collected since 2000 are accurate to within 5 meters of the actual point count location. Most points were collected using a Garmin II or later version GPS unit. Elevation is accurate to within 30 m or 90 m. Elevation information was derived using GIS and any available 30 m or 90 m DEM layers for each location. Unknown Unknown online 1991 current ground condition Metadata imported. C:\DOCUME~1\vtoniolo\LOCALS~1\Temp\xml59FE.tmp Unknown Dataset moved. V:\gis_projects\all_sites\all_pc\allpc_albers Unknown Metadata imported. V:\gis_projects\all_sites\Old\allpc_albers.shp.xml Unknown Metadata imported. C:\DOCUME~1\vtoniolo\LOCALS~1\Temp\xml1B58.tmp 20050620 184116 Metadata imported. V:\project\prbo\all_sites\all_pc\metadata\allpc_metadata_oct05.xml 20060601 155647 Dataset moved. V:\PROJECT\prbo\all_sites\all_pc\allpc_geo 20070320 160105 Metadata imported. V:\PROJECT\prbo\all_sites\all_pc\shp\allpc_geo.shp.xml 20070427 111153 Vector Entity point 11666 0 0 Decimal degrees North American Datum of 1983 Geodetic Reference System 80 6378137 298.257222 allpc_BASE Feature Class 11666 FID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. UNIQUEID Unique ID for each survey point (project code + id_code). PRBO String, 254 characters. PRBOSITE PRBO site (Y) or partner organization (N). PRBO String, 254 characters. PROJECT PRBO project name. PRBO String, 254 characters. STATIONNAM Station/transect full name. PRBO String, 254 characters. ID_CODE STATIONID + SITEID. PRBO String, 254 characters. X Longitude (decimal degrees) none String, 254 characters. Y Latitude (decimal degrees) none String, 50 characters. PROJECTID PRBO unique project code PRBO String, 254 characters. STATIONID Station / transect code (4-6 letter) PRBO Float, 19 characters. SITEID Point number within transect. PRBO Float, 19 characters. ORIGIN Origin of the coordinates of the data record (e.g. GPS unit, hand-digitized, etc.) PRBO String, 50 characters. NON_PUBLIC Designates if the data record can be shared with the public. PRBO String, 4 characters. PRBO Point Count Data Structure Ballard and Geupel, 1994 Last revision: 9/2002 Each individual bird encountered during a point count has its own record (corresponding to rows in the table) in the file. Each record is comprised of nine fields (corresponding to columns in the table). The nine fields are: 1. SPEC: The four letter AOU abbreviation for species name. SOSP = Song Sparrow. Enter "9999" for no detections. 2. DATA: A five character code for type, distance, and timing of detection. The first character corresponds to the behavior of the bird that caused it to be detected, "S" for singing, "C" for calling, "V" for visual. The second through fourth characters correspond to distance of detection from point count location. In general, "L50" for within 50 meters, "G50" for greater than 50 meters, "FLO" for flying over. Use "B00" for > 100m. The final character represents the timing of the detection, and could be used to identify the duration of each count. "3" for three minutes, "5" for five minutes, etc. Example: "CL505" would correspond to an individual detected calling within 50 meters during a five-minute point count. Enter "99999" for no detections. For variable circular plot (VCP) data, "L" still signifies < 50, G >50. However, the upper end of the distance band is used rather than "50". For detections > 100 m, use "B". See examples at end. 3. State: Two letter abbreviation for the State in which the census occurred. 4. Region: Generally the county in which the census occurred, though could be used for more descriptive location information, if applicable. Nine characters. 5. Station: Six character study area identifier. 6. Date: Date of count. 7. Initials: Three characters for initials of observer. 8. Site: Two digits for individual point count site number. 9. Time: Four numbers for beginning time (in 24 hour format with no colon)of census for each site. Each record contains all of this information. Though it may seem redundant, it is important for keeping track of data and for ease of analysis using each individual as a separate statistical observation. See "Entity and Attribute Overview" for a list of fields contained in the raw bird data. Data will be shared with non-PRBO entities at the discretion of the party responsible for its collection and maintenance (PRBO project leader and/or data manager) and in accordance with PRBO's data-sharing policy. PRBO Conservation Science Grant Ballard Terrestrial Ecology Division data manager mailing

4990 Shoreline Hwy

Stinson Beach CA 94970 USA (415) 868-0655 x 302 gballard@prbo.org Downloadable Data PRBO Conservation Science does not assume any responsibility regarding the accuracy, utility or completeness of the data for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. We strongly recommend that the data be acquired directly from PRBO Conservation Science and not from an independent third party, which may have modified the data after obtaining it. PRBO shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. ~~~ PRBO Data Sharing Policy November 2003 It is PRBO policy that data should be shared whenever possible while considering the tradeoffs between widespread distribution of data sets, the need to assure data quality and validity, and the privacy rights of land owners, as applicable. The general rule is that data should be released as soon as possible, along with documentation that can be used to judge data quality and potential usefulness. PRBO believes that the intellectual investment and time committed to the collection of a data set entitles the investigator to the fundamental benefits of the work. Therefore, publication of descriptive or interpretive results derived immediately and directly from the data is the privilege and responsibility of the investigators who collect the data. This is one of the primary motivations for scientific data collection, and the scientific method is supported by this principle. PRBO encourages its scientists to anticipate that most data collected will eventually become part of the public domain, and recommends that procedures be employed to facilitate this sharing, such as concurrent metadata generation, data verification, data entry, and data backup. Data for which there are no associated metadata, or which have not been verified, should not be shared. Data that have not been used for peer-reviewed publication should be shared with caution. Data used in publications should be ready for public distribution at the same time as the actual publication. Data relevant to public policy should be shared as quickly and widely as possible. All PRBO data that have been shared should be maintained in a fashion that facilitates its continued public accessibility. This includes the need for data versioning, informing users when there have been important changes to public datasets. Data collected on private lands may be subject to more extensive sharing restrictions, depending on agreements between PRBO and landowners. PRBO maintains numerous datasets, including several with hundreds of thousands of records covering 20 or more years and involving multiple investigators. PRBO recognizes that these datasets can be used for many purposes, either on their own or through combination with other data. Any researcher making substantial use of a dataset should communicate with the investigators who acquired the data, or those to whom responsibility for the data has been entrusted, prior to publication. In most cases these researchers should anticipate that the data collectors or current managers would be co-authors of published results. PRBO will encourage and facilitate the ethical and courteous use of data within its archives. PRBO will maintain a list of all data access and will notify those who access the data that they may be the intellectual property of the collecting scientists. PRBO requests that it be acknowledged in any publication, report, or presentation using data that have been collected by PRBO scientists. The requesting party(s) and the appropriate PRBO Division Director should sign a data sharing agreement, and a copy should be filed with the Division Director. Data may be posted on the web with approval in advance from the collecting scientists and the Division Director. Such public posting of data must be permissible under relevant contracts. Any costs that PRBO incurs in the process of providing or maintaining public access to its datasets should be reimbursed. These costs should be considered at the project proposal stage for new data, and at the data request stage for legacy data. Costs include hourly wages for persons responsible for data maintenance and retrieval, as well as indirect costs for maintenance of computer equipment and backup systems. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Developed by Grant Ballard, revised per feedback at PRBO's 2003 Science Retreat and with additional revisions and approval by the PRBO Management Team, November 2003. PRBO reserves the right to modify, revise or supplement this policy, as it deems appropriate. website 0.257 none To obtain the most recent version of the point count shapefile, contact PRBO's Informatics Specialist: Chris Rintoul PRBO Conservation Science 3820 Cypress Drive, #11 crintoul@prbo.org To obtain a copy of the bird data (summarized by year for each point) associated with each point count location please contact PRBO's Terrestrial Ecology Division data manager: Grant Ballard PRBO Conservation Science 4990 Shoreline Hwy Stinson Beach, CA 94970 (415) 868-0655 x 302 gballard@prbo.org Bird data will be shared with non-PRBO entities at the discretion of the party responsible for its collection and maintenance (PRBO project leader and/or data manager) and according to PRBO's data-sharing policy. Avian Knowledge Network mailing

Cornell Lab of Ornithology,

159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.

Ithaca NY 14850 USA Point Counts: Point Reyes Bird Observatory These data are made available through the Avian Knowledge Network, a National Science Foundation funded project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. No warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding the accuracy or utility of these data. website http://www.avianknowledge.net/ none 20070427 PRBO Conservation Science Viola Toniolo GIS Biologist physical

4990 Shoreline Hwy

Stinson Beach CA 94970 US >(415) 868-0655 x 302 (415) 868-9363 vtoniolo@prbo.org FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998