Disclaimer Statement: The data map should be used for exploratory purposes only. Point Blue Conservation Science and its partners are not responsible and shall not be held liable for any use of these data. Complete data sets for rigorous scientific analyses are available upon request.

About the Maps – Suggested Reading Prior to Use

The data map summarizes shorebird and raptor observations recorded as part of the Migratory Shorebird Project, the Pacific Flyway Shorebird Survey, the British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey, the Peru Shorebird Atlas and the Chile Shorebird Atlas.

Scaled circles in the map indicate the average number of birds counted at that the sampling unit across all surveys without accounting for variation in the size of sampling units. These data summaries should not be considered a rigorous assessment, but rather general indicators of abundance and distribution of individual species and taxa. Only shorebirds and raptors are always recorded across all survey locations, so data from other taxa should be considered incomplete.

Data are collected using protocols that generally represent area searches. Survey protocols are available here and there are important differences between coastal and interior survey design. At coastal sites, surveys cover relatively large sampling units using coordinated counts during a short, standardized time period with certain tidal conditions, whereas at interior sites more numerous and considerably smaller individual sampling units are surveyed along predetermined routes. Most data used in the map were recorded during winter (November – February), and winter data are presented separately from data recorded during migration (March – May and July - October) which are recorded at far fewer sites.

All data used in the map are stored in the California Avian Data Center, which is a node of the Avian Knowledge Network that is managed by Point Blue Conservation Science. These data are compiled with assistance from over 100 partner organizations and nearly 500 volunteer citizen scientists each year.

About the Maps – Suggested Reading Prior to Use

Partial List of contributing Partner Organizations