General Protocol: Summary of Protocols

Surveying for BFL involves visiting each point twice, and following a simple, standardized protocol. Each visit includes one 10-minute Observation Period, during which you will look and listen for your pre-selected study species to be spontaneously calling, singing, and/or displaying. This is followed by a 5-minute Playback Period for each species, during which you will play recorded sounds of your study species to elicit a response from birds at your study site. Finally, you will conduct one 10-minute Behavior Watch Period, which involves playing chickadee and owl mobbing calls in a final attempt to observe your study species and determine their breeding status. For the Playback and Behavior Watch Period, you will use sounds from the BFL CD included with this research kit.

In some regions, many of the BFL study species will be present within your immediate area. Determine which species you are likely to encounter by referring to “Which Species Can I Study?” in the Survey Instructions: Species Guidelines section of this manual and the descriptions of breeding habitats for each species in the References: Species Accounts section. It is very important to select your study species for each specific site before going into the field and then survey for all chosen species at each site. You do not have to survey for the same species at each site. Recording the observation of a species that you were not surveying for will bias BFL results. You don’t need to survey for every species that breeds in your region; choose only as many species as you feel comfortable studying. Even one species will help us answer the important questions discussed in the General Instructions. If you are still uncertain about which species to study after consulting the sections listed above, contact a site coordinator or the BFL staff.

Timing of the breeding cycle varies among species, and even within a species depending on latitude and longitude. The Reference section of this manual contains general information, but we suggest checking with local sources to determine the specific timing for your region. Visit 1 should take place on the earliest date that all of your study species are present and expected to be breeding. This is generally a few days after a bird arrives on territory. Courtship should be at its peak, but not so early that migrating birds may still be passing through.

Visit 2 should occur approximately two to four weeks after Visit 1, when you have the maximum chance of confirming breeding activity for all of your study species. If you would like to study species that start to breed at very different times during the season, for example the Cooper’s Hawk (expected egg dates in early April) and the Blackburnian Warbler (expected egg dates in late May), then survey for different study species at different sites. Make sure you choose sites that are in suitable breeding habitat for the particular bird(s).

To be more efficient in the field, please read through the entire manual before selecting sites and actually conducting the protocol. Then, gather copies of topographic maps of the areas that you plan to survey (see References: Map Resources) and familiarize yourself with the Field Form as well as the CD before going in the field. Make as many photocopies of the Field Form as you need. Remember, one objective of BFL is to confirm breeding for as many species as possible at randomly selected study sites. Negative data, or confirming the absence of your study species, is just as important as finding your target bird. We must know where these species are as well as where they are not breeding.