For this part of GOWAP, you will survey known and potential Golden-winged Warbler breeding sites to determine numbers of breeding birds, population status, and general habitat characteristics. The objective of this survey is to create a Distribution Map that shows boundaries for areas that have high concentrations of Golden-winged Warblers in sufficient detail to indicate potential sites for preservation and management. For the Population Survey we are less interested in areas that only contain Blue-winged Warblers.

You can choose as many sites as you would like to survey. We suggest beginning with spots that are known Golden-winged Warbler breeding areas, but we encourage you to explore additional sites as well. Please try to cover a broad range of potentially suitable shrubby habitat in your area. Recording data about areas where golden-wings are not present, but where the habitat "looks good," is also important.

Select Study Sites

• First, select sites to survey. Check your state Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA), other published literature, or recent bird records.
• Define each site as an area of roughly contiguous suitable habitat; where possible try to keep each discrete habitat type recorded as a separate site (for example, a beaver meadow and adjacent power line right of way within a state park would be recorded as two separate sites).
• Locate and outline your site(s) on a copy of a Delorme Atlas page or topographical map. Please make sure to include a copy of this map with your dataforms when you return them to Cornell.
• You may find it helpful to make rough field maps of each site to use while surveying.

Field Surveys

• Remember that the goal of the Population Survey is to estimate the total population of warblers at each site.
• Try to survey all the suitable habitat at a site on one or more visits.
• Try to visually confirm the ID of each bird before recording it on your data form if you are in an area where Blue-winged Warblers occur. Feel free to put this information in the comments section.
• You may use the included cassette tape of Golden-winged Warbler vocalizations to elicit a response from territorial birds in order to confirm identification or to determine the number of individuals present. Make sure not to count birds twice that are seen within 650 feet (200 meters) of each other unless you hear two birds singing at once or they are seen at the same time.
• NOTE: you may only need to play Golden-winged Warbler Type I songs for this part of the protocol.
• NOTE: please use tapes sparingly; play only long enough to bring bird into view for visual ID.
• Make sure to note the habitat and site characteristics; see the Data Form instructions.