Q&A: The Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey Active
Alaska provides breeding habitat for more than 140 regularly occurring species of landbirds, a group that includes woodpeckers, songbirds, ravens and jays, raptors, and other land-dwelling species like grouse and ptarmigan. The Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (ALMS) tracks the breeding populations of landbirds in the vast off-road areas of Alaska.
Return to USGS Alaska Q&A Series
A recent study found that there has been a 30% decline in the total number of breeding birds in North America since 1970. Meaning that nearly 3 billion adult birds have been lost from the continental avifauna in the past 50 years. Most of these losses have been among species of landbirds, a diverse group that includes small birds such as woodpeckers, hummingbirds, warblers, sparrows, and jays.
The data used in this study came from decades of standardized, ground-based surveys for these smaller species that are monitored very differently from larger birds like waterfowl. Since ducks, geese, and especially swans are large, they can be reliably seen and counted from airplanes during population surveys. Additionally, because waterfowl are often hunted, biologists can use recoveries of metal-banded birds reported by hunters to help estimate waterfowl population sizes. Neither of these methods work for landbirds, which are too small, often hide in thick vegetation, and are typically not hunted.
In this Q&A, we talk with biologists Steve Matsuoka and Rachel Richardson at the USGS Alaska Science Center. Steve and Rachel lead the Landbird Research and Monitoring Program at the USGS Alaska Science Center and have developed and conducted standardized surveys with many state, federal, and NGO partners that monitor landbird populations in Alaska. This team has also led development of a multi-agency plan that outlines future research and monitoring goals for landbirds and their habitats across Alaska.
Q: How are landbird populations monitored in Alaska?
Steve: Most landbird species during the breeding season are monitored in Alaska and elsewhere across North America by counting the number of birds seen or heard at a series of survey points visited in the early morning. Over 90% of the adult birds counted during these “point-count surveys” are encountered and identified solely by their distinctive song, which the males perform during the dawn chorus to stake their claim to a territory and attract a mate. Traditionally, these surveys are done along roadsides, such as by the thousands of citizen scientists annually conducting surveys across the continent as part of the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Road-based surveys like the BBS monitor bird populations across the lower 48 states where you cannot get farther than 5 miles from a road in most states. However, in Alaska, which hosts a majority of the designated wilderness in the U.S., most birds nest far away from the few roads there. Thus, the USGS Alaska Science Center Landbird Program and partners created the Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (ALMS) to monitor landbird populations across the vast roadless areas of Alaska.
Rachel: Alaska is big, so it takes a group effort across the state to conduct surveys across a wide variety of landscapes in the state. These lands include municipal, state, and national parks; state and national wildlife refuges; national forests; military lands; and others. Our partners submit their survey data to the USGS and we archive, make the data publicly available, and analyze the data for population trends. You can learn the technical details about how and why these surveys are conducted at the weblink for the ALMS Alaska Regional Protocol Framework document.
Q: Do the ALMS surveys show similar declines in landbirds as observed in the recent North American study?
Steve: The results from ALMS also show the rates of decline in Alaska populations are often larger than those found in the same or similar species nesting elsewhere in North America. In the early 1990s, before we had monitoring data like we do today with ALMS, we speculated that the large region of state and national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges across Alaska (41% of state) might protect landbirds here from the declines seen in more developed parts of the world. However, we now know that landbirds are also steeply declining in protected lands across Alaska.
Furthermore, most of Alaska’s landbird species are migratory and spend much of the year outside of the state and these migrations are among the most spectacular on earth. For example, the tiny Blackpoll Warbler (weighs as much as two quarters)—one of the continent’s most steeply declining birds—breeds in Alaska, migrates across Canada in fall, and then moves off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. during the hurricane season and flies 3 days nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to the north coast of Venezuela; a trip of about 1,800 miles.
Q: Besides ALMS, are there specific surveys to address certain landbird species?
Rachel: Yes, for example we are using another survey technique known as line transect sampling to update the population size estimate for McKay’s Buntings, Alaska’s only endemic landbird and a species of conservation concern. McKay’s Buntings have a small and declining population (31,600 birds in 2003 but only 19,500 birds in 2018) and only breed on two remote and uninhabited islands in the Bering Sea approximately 250 miles from mainland Alaska. We are repeating these surveys in 2024 with our partners from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the bunting population continues to decline. A summary of those recent surveys can be found in this document.
Q: Are there any new plans for the ALMS effort?
Steve: Our dedicated partners have collected over 20 years of bird survey data across Alaska as part of ALMS. We completed the first data release of survey data collected from 2002 to 2022. This data release includes information on over 131,000 birds of 197 bird species counted during nearly 11,000 point-count surveys. The survey data collected by our partners in subsequent years will be released each year in the winter following data collection. We are also planning to analyze the ALMS data for long-term population trends biennially and make the results available on our website, similar to what was done in this report that used ALMS data.
Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey
Alaska provides breeding habitat for more than 140 regularly occurring species of landbirds, a group that includes woodpeckers, songbirds, ravens and jays, raptors, and other land-dwelling species like grouse and ptarmigan. The Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (ALMS) tracks the breeding populations of landbirds in the vast off-road areas of Alaska.
Return to USGS Alaska Q&A Series
A recent study found that there has been a 30% decline in the total number of breeding birds in North America since 1970. Meaning that nearly 3 billion adult birds have been lost from the continental avifauna in the past 50 years. Most of these losses have been among species of landbirds, a diverse group that includes small birds such as woodpeckers, hummingbirds, warblers, sparrows, and jays.
The data used in this study came from decades of standardized, ground-based surveys for these smaller species that are monitored very differently from larger birds like waterfowl. Since ducks, geese, and especially swans are large, they can be reliably seen and counted from airplanes during population surveys. Additionally, because waterfowl are often hunted, biologists can use recoveries of metal-banded birds reported by hunters to help estimate waterfowl population sizes. Neither of these methods work for landbirds, which are too small, often hide in thick vegetation, and are typically not hunted.
In this Q&A, we talk with biologists Steve Matsuoka and Rachel Richardson at the USGS Alaska Science Center. Steve and Rachel lead the Landbird Research and Monitoring Program at the USGS Alaska Science Center and have developed and conducted standardized surveys with many state, federal, and NGO partners that monitor landbird populations in Alaska. This team has also led development of a multi-agency plan that outlines future research and monitoring goals for landbirds and their habitats across Alaska.
Q: How are landbird populations monitored in Alaska?
Steve: Most landbird species during the breeding season are monitored in Alaska and elsewhere across North America by counting the number of birds seen or heard at a series of survey points visited in the early morning. Over 90% of the adult birds counted during these “point-count surveys” are encountered and identified solely by their distinctive song, which the males perform during the dawn chorus to stake their claim to a territory and attract a mate. Traditionally, these surveys are done along roadsides, such as by the thousands of citizen scientists annually conducting surveys across the continent as part of the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Road-based surveys like the BBS monitor bird populations across the lower 48 states where you cannot get farther than 5 miles from a road in most states. However, in Alaska, which hosts a majority of the designated wilderness in the U.S., most birds nest far away from the few roads there. Thus, the USGS Alaska Science Center Landbird Program and partners created the Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (ALMS) to monitor landbird populations across the vast roadless areas of Alaska.
Rachel: Alaska is big, so it takes a group effort across the state to conduct surveys across a wide variety of landscapes in the state. These lands include municipal, state, and national parks; state and national wildlife refuges; national forests; military lands; and others. Our partners submit their survey data to the USGS and we archive, make the data publicly available, and analyze the data for population trends. You can learn the technical details about how and why these surveys are conducted at the weblink for the ALMS Alaska Regional Protocol Framework document.
Q: Do the ALMS surveys show similar declines in landbirds as observed in the recent North American study?
Steve: The results from ALMS also show the rates of decline in Alaska populations are often larger than those found in the same or similar species nesting elsewhere in North America. In the early 1990s, before we had monitoring data like we do today with ALMS, we speculated that the large region of state and national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges across Alaska (41% of state) might protect landbirds here from the declines seen in more developed parts of the world. However, we now know that landbirds are also steeply declining in protected lands across Alaska.
Furthermore, most of Alaska’s landbird species are migratory and spend much of the year outside of the state and these migrations are among the most spectacular on earth. For example, the tiny Blackpoll Warbler (weighs as much as two quarters)—one of the continent’s most steeply declining birds—breeds in Alaska, migrates across Canada in fall, and then moves off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. during the hurricane season and flies 3 days nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to the north coast of Venezuela; a trip of about 1,800 miles.
Q: Besides ALMS, are there specific surveys to address certain landbird species?
Rachel: Yes, for example we are using another survey technique known as line transect sampling to update the population size estimate for McKay’s Buntings, Alaska’s only endemic landbird and a species of conservation concern. McKay’s Buntings have a small and declining population (31,600 birds in 2003 but only 19,500 birds in 2018) and only breed on two remote and uninhabited islands in the Bering Sea approximately 250 miles from mainland Alaska. We are repeating these surveys in 2024 with our partners from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the bunting population continues to decline. A summary of those recent surveys can be found in this document.
Q: Are there any new plans for the ALMS effort?
Steve: Our dedicated partners have collected over 20 years of bird survey data across Alaska as part of ALMS. We completed the first data release of survey data collected from 2002 to 2022. This data release includes information on over 131,000 birds of 197 bird species counted during nearly 11,000 point-count surveys. The survey data collected by our partners in subsequent years will be released each year in the winter following data collection. We are also planning to analyze the ALMS data for long-term population trends biennially and make the results available on our website, similar to what was done in this report that used ALMS data.