Introduction to Which Species I Can Study

The tables and information in this section will help you customize the Birds in Forested Landscapes project for your geographic area or particular interests, and will aid you in selecting your study species.

Before you begin, read through BFL's Highest-priority Study Species guide. As bird conservation plans have been developed for nearly every region, high-priority species have been identified, and strategies have been outlined for reversing declines and maintaining healthy populations. It's vital that we increase our sample sizes of these high-priority species. Please select at least one regionally targeted BFL study species when you begin your field work in the spring.

The first table in this section, Distribution of BFL Study Species by State and Province, lists which species breed in each state and province. After identifying the species that you can potentially study, you should check the individual species accounts located under the Species References tab for detailed range maps and habitat preferences. This will narrow the choice of species that you can survey for at any particular study site.

The next table, Summary of Breeding Chronology, can then be used to plan when to make your visits to each study site. From the list of possible species, you may chose to survey as few or as many species as you feel comfortable studying.

We have also included other information such as identification and behavior tips for some species, Guide to Species Groups. We hope to be able to add more of these tips in future years of the BFL project.