IBP’s flagship bird monitoring program in the Pacific Northwest is a long-term partnership with the National Park Service to monitor trends in the abundance and distribution of birds in five Pacific Northwest national parks:

Ranging from sea level to the top of 14,410’ Mount Rainier, the national parks of the Pacific Northwest encompass a stunning diversity of species and ecosystems, including temperate rainforests, rugged, undeveloped coastline, and glaciated peaks. Much of these are within vast tracts of roadless mountainous and forested areas.

In summer IBP deploys a crew of expert bird surveyors, who conduct point counts of all bird species heard and seen at pre-selected, mostly off-trail locations that are visited year after year. Surveyors hike hundreds of miles collecting data that allow us to track populations and distributions of dozens of bird species. This information yields important findings about habitat needs of Pacific Northwest birds, the status of declining populations, and the effects of climate change and other large-scale ecological processes.

For more information about all of IBP’s work in the Pacific Northwest, please contact Mandy Holmgren.

To view an interactive map of bird monitoring survey transects in Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks click here.