North American Breeding Bird Survey Summary and Analysis Website 1966-2017

This website provides visualizations of population change for North American birds using data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). The BBS is analyzed for a "core" area (contiguous United States and southern Canada, results available from 1966-present), and for an "expanded" survey area (including portions of Alaska and northern Canada with results from 1993-present). Results are available at survey-wide, country, state or province, Bird Conservation region, and individual survey route (US only). For all scales, annual indices of abundance are displayed along with population trend estimates. Maps provide visualizations of population change via colors (red color indicates significant decline, yellow is nonsignificant decline, light blue is nonsignificant increase and dark blue is significant increase).

The program has 4 parts (1) A species selection window; (2) Pull-down menus (Data, Scale, Years, Metadata); (3) A map window; and (4) A graph window.

Here is how it works:

1. Select a species (click on the name). Note that some species only occur in the expanded survey area and can only be selected when the expanded survey area is selected from the Data menu.
2. Select from the pull-down menus.
   1. Data: Select Core area (results from 1966-2017) or Expanded area (1993-2017)
   2. Scale: Select Continental, US/Canada, State/Province, or Bird Conservation Region.
   Optional selections:
   3. Years: This selection is for custom analyses of years for interactive trend analysis.
   4. Metadata: Links to metadata and summary data downloads.
When Species, Data, and Scale are selected, a map will appear for the regions. It will have colors that summarize change for the species by region (red=decline, blue=increase).
3. Scroll the cursor over the region of interest. The will cause the region name and trend estimate (%/yr, and N of routes) to appear above the map, and a graph of the annual indices and 95% credible intervals will appear in the graph window.
4. Left click on the region. This will open a window in which the trend and annual index data will be listed. If you select a span of years other than the default years (from the Years menu), then the website will conduct a custom trend analysis for those years.
5. Right click on the region (States only). This will display the locations of the survey routes within the state. By moving the cursor over the routes, relative abundance of the selected species will appear on the top banner of the maps. Clicking on a route will display trends and counts for the route. Note: The route paths have not been updated since 2012, and do not reflect any changes in route paths since 2012.

Some additional details:

• Rescale the map using the scrolling dial on the mouse
• Refresh the map (i.e., to remove routes from the map) by reselecting Scale,
• Metadata menu contains a link to spreadsheets of all the summary results and formal metadata.
• Internet Explorer version 9 or earlier does not display properly.

General Information

Data Liability Disclaimer

• Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. It is strongly recommended that these data are directly acquired from a USGS server, and not indirectly through other sources which may have changed the data in some way. It is also strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data. The USGS shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein.

  So, these data are provided "as is" and without any express or implied warranties, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Also, use of trade names or commercial products in this home page is solely for the purpose of providing specific information, and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Government.

• Introduction

  • USGS The North American Breeding Bird Survey-BBS

    Version 6-17-2016
    • What is the Home Page?
      • The BBS Summary and Analysis Website is a source of information about population change and distribution of many North American bird species. It is also a tool for learning about birds, with connections to our websites containing ID tips with pictures of common North American birds and quizzes on bird distribution and identification. This website is a supplement to the BBS Operations Website. The BBS Operations Website is the appropriate source for "raw" (unsummarized) BBS data, for additional information on the details of running and maintaining the survey, and for links to additional BBS resources.

    • What is the BBS?
      • The BBS is a large-scale survey of North American birds. It is a roadside survey, primarily covering the continental United States and southern Canada, although survey routes have recently been initiated in Alaska and northern Mexico. The BBS was started in 1966 and now contains over 5,000 survey routes which are surveyed in June by experienced birders.

        The primary objective of the BBS has been the estimation of population change for bird encountered along roadsides. However, the data have many potential uses, and investigators have used the data to address a variety of research and management objectives.

    • How does the Results and Analysis Home Page work?
      • The website provides information on (1) population change estimates of bird species at several geographic scales; (2) population change estimates for species groups; and (3) maps of bird species distributions and population change. The Results and Analysis home page provides links to detailed information on these categories.

        Results are generally presented as clickable lists, where regions or species are selected and the website provides summry results from underlying results of analyses with were previously conducted. This way, we provide results that have been reviewed, as consistent with USGS regulations regarding release of information. On-the-fly interactive programs permit additional analyses that are based upon the same underlying analyeses but permit more flexibility in regions and time periods of summary.

        Some users will find the clickable list structure of the Summary and Analysis Website to be "old fashioned." We have retained this overall structure to meet the needs of many users of the data, who often harvest results from these lists and thus appreciate consistency in presentation from year to year.

    • Supplemental Information
      • Analysis and interpretation of BBS data is tricky, because the survey incorporates information from a huge geographic area and the survey varies greatly in quality of information over the area. To document some of the problems with the analyses of BBS data, and help you interpret the results presented on the Home Page, we provide a series of help files that provide information on the survey, discuss problems with its analysis, and tell you how the presented information should be interpreted. We suggest you read the help files for each category of information before looking at the results.

        Help files and metadata are presented with summary data, and are also available in the References and Additional Information link on the web site.

    • Learning about birds with the Home Page
      • The BBS is an important source of information on where birds occur during June in North America. The maps of abundance provided here allow you to test your knowledge of breeding bird distributions. To help with the test, we provide a quiz of bird distributions in which you guess the species for a randomly- selected abundance map.

        We also provide pictures of some of the bird species covered by the BBS. In this version of the Home Page, we provide more pictures of birds, and we provide songs of common birds.

    • Comments and Disclaimers
      • We welcome comments on the home page. We intend to improve it as new methods for summary of survey data are developed, and in response to user feedback. We caution that, as always in data analyses, the possibility exists for errors in the analyses and summaries.

    • Acknowledgments
      • Any analysis of BBS data must first acknowledge the large number of observers who conduct the counts. These counts are a lot of effort, and require a great deal of skill. We greatly appreciate their efforts. Of course, Chan Robbins, the originator of the survey, is still the primary source of energy and inspiration for analyses and interpretation of this challenging data set. A variety of data managers and coordinators, including Chan Robbins, Ted Van Velzen, Danny Bystrak, Sam Droege, Bruce Peterjohn, Keith Pardieck, and David Ziolkowski (on the US side), and Tony Erskine, Marie-Anne Hudson, Connie Downes, and Bev McBride (on the Canadian side) have contributed to the program. We especially thank the many editors and data managers and other BBS staff who have contributed to the analysis for making the data and their expertise available to us. Daniel Niven reviewed the website.

References and additional information

• Metadata for Analysis Website
• Link, W. A., and J. R. Sauer. 2002. A hierarchical model of population change with application to Cerulean Warblers. Ecology 83:2832-2840.
• Sauer, J. R., J. E. Fallon, and R. Johnson. 2003. Use of North American Breeding Bird Survey data to estimate population change for bird conservation regions. J. Wildlife Management 67:372-389.
• Sauer, J. R., and W. A. Link. 2011. Analysis Of The North American Breeding Bird Survey Using Hierarchical Models. The Auk 128:87-98.
• Sauer, J. R., and W. A. Link. 2011. Comparative Analysis of Hierarchical Model and Route Regression Trend Analyses (Sauer and Link 2011, The Auk)