Percentile of the modeled species abundance within that habitat type. A percentile is a value on a scale of 1-100 that indicates the percentage of cells that are less than or equal to it. For example, a score in the 95th percentile means that it is equal to or better than 95% of the scores. 

This concept is easier to understand with an example: the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20% of the observations (cells) may be found; conversely, in the 20th percentile, 80% of the cells have higher modeled abundances. <Species name> Abundance Percentile is depicted along a color gradient from a light color indicating lower abundance to a dark color indicating a higher abundance. Please view the legend for species of interest to see the range in abundance values. Note: In this project, we express each cell as the percent of cells that have modeled abundance values greater than 0; thus, a cell percentile is relative to the other cells that had the bird as opposed to all cells in the whole region.

Land trusts and practitioners can use these data to determine where to join parcels on the landscape to create connectivity for birds or specific species of conservation concern. It can be used (note: could also be helpful to turn on the TNC Secured Areas layer) to help inform strategic conservation plans when trying to connect urban and suburban areas by identifying small and medium woodlots (and other green spaces) to increase value as a whole for birds and biodiversity. These data and the following layers can also be used to provide metrics for grant applications to justify suggested conservation efforts, demonstrate the need for habitat management and restoration, and engage donors and grantors in the power of birds as indicators of healthy ecosystems.

At a Northeast regional scale, Brown Thrasher Abundance Percentile under the ‘Scrub/Shrub and Young Forest’ subfolder, shows, for example, that Maryland has a high abundance of Brown Thrashers, whereas Vermont has a lower abundance of Brown Thrashers. This is indicated by the fact that the mapping tool shows a high density of dark red cells in Maryland, whereas Vermont shows fewer dark red cells.

These areas were defined as those cells within the top 30% (i.e. in the 70th percentile or higher) of the values in that species’ Abundance Percentiles (see above) signifying areas that could be of the highest quality habitat for the selected species. This “thresholding” was done to provide users with a simplified version of the modeled abundance data by reducing the 100 possible blue-to-red abundance percentiles and converting them to Top 30% or Not Top 30% for each species.

Specifying the top 30% cutoff was largely a subjective decision and was picked by our team in consultation with many bird experts as a good compromise between identifying too many or too few areas for each species. If the cutoff was too low, we also feared that many of the areas shown would not be good habitats and could be detrimental to the species.

This information can be used in a presentation to show landowners how important their land is within the region and illustrate with maps how their land brings value to conservation projects and goals within the larger landscape. Conservationists and land trusts can also use this layer, in combination with the Habitat Quality and TNC Secured Areas layers, to identify areas for habitat improvement and conservation for their priority or focal bird species. 

At a Midwest and Central regional scale, under the scrub/shrub and young forest layer, Bell’s Vireo Highest Quality Habitat shows only those cells (represented by purple pixels) where the abundance is in the top 30% for this species within the region. Purple pixels represent high-quality habitat areas, and lower-quality habitats are gray pixels. Kansas has the largest number of these highest quality habitat pixels in this region.

This layer allows you to view a full species list (from the list of priority birds in the region) that occur within a particular area (3 km x 3km pixel) on the map. When a user turns this layer on and clicks on a cell or group of cells on the map, a table will pop up showing which species (by habitat type) have their highest quality habitat (top 30%) within that highlighted area as signified with a number one next to the name and those that do not, as signified by a zero. Note: the original eBird S&T cells are merged with adjacent cells if they have the same species in common.

Land trusts and practitioners can use these lists to generate interest and engage landowners in conservation and management by sharing with them a list of birds that are predicted to be on their property from statistical and machine learning models given eBird observations matched with characteristics of the local environment. If a landowner would like to put an easement on their property, this information can help a land trust determine what species they could look for in the field and help inform the stewardship plan for the property. These bird data can also help a landowner gain a better understanding of the habitats that might be most important to protect and manage on their property and then they can contact local or regional organizations to learn more about how best to manage their property for birds (such as connecting with the Forestry for Michigan’s Birds program).

In this example, the Bird Species List by Pixel layer is on and a cell in Wisconsin has been clicked. This results in a pop-up table with a list of all 50 priority bird species in the Midwest and Central region; a number one is next to the species that have their highest quality habitat (top 30%) within the highlighted cell, and a number zero next to those that do not.

This layer shows the number or sum of priority bird species of a given habitat that have their Highest Quality Habitat (top 30% of Abundance Percentiles) within that cell. For example, in the Forest-Bird Habitat Quality layer in the Midwest and Central Tool, a dark green cell has a value of 8, meaning that 8 out of the 12 forest species have their Highest Quality Habitat within that cell.

These layers give an overall look across the landscape by habitat type. Land trusts and other conservation organizations could use these layers to identify potential high-quality habitats by habitat type (forest, scrub-shrub, grassland, etc.) to identify target areas for improved management. Additionally, land trusts could use these layers in combination with the TNC Secured Areas layer to identify priority areas for management (where habitat can be improved) and conservation (where high-quality habitat exists and is adjoining or close to protected areas, but is not already protected). A user can turn on the TNC Resilient and Connected Networks and Habitat Quality layers and pick out areas that a conservation organization might wish to target for land protection or easement acquisitions when considering climate resiliency and birds of conservation concern. These areas that fall out with a large number of target species may be more dynamic habitats that are biologically diverse and thus are likely important areas to protect.

In the Northeast region, there is a high forest bird habitat quality cluster at the border of Maine and Canada. The areas in orange to dark red show that 5 or more of the 7 priority birds for forest habitat co-occur in their highest abundances (top 30%) in this region. 

Resilience and Recognized Biodiversity: Areas with high microclimatic diversity, low human modification, and known biodiversity value (rare species, intact habitat, or exemplary natural communities) based on ground inventories.

Resilience and Flow: Areas with high microclimatic diversity, low human modification (resilient sites), and concentrated climate flow zones. Concentrated climate flow zones are areas where climate change-driven population movements are expected to be concentrated through narrow areas. Because of their importance in maintaining flow across a larger network, these pinch points are good candidates for land conservation.

Resilience, Flow, and Recognized Biodiversity: Areas with high microclimatic diversity, low human modification, known biodiversity value (rare species, intact habitat, or exemplary natural communities), and concentrated flow zones.

Continental: Species of continental conservation concern, assemblage, or group of bird species, in a BCR.

Global: Species of global conservation concern, assemblage of restricted-range species, assemblage of biome-restricted species.

State: Species of state conservation concern, species in rare/unique habitat.

Outlines: Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Boundaries: The RCP Network boundaries are available as a layer on the map and encompass the area each RCP works in.

RCPs: Each polygon contains the location and contact information for an RCP member; these are embedded (click on polygons) with RCP contact information.