The new summaries of data from the eBird platform provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will assist wildlife planners in states to evaluate the status of bird populations residing in or passing through their territories, which is vital for species conservation.
A dedicated group of data scientists at eBird, a platform focused on citizen science, has compiled summaries for every bird species found in each state, and these are now accessible online at no cost. This information will aid states as they prepare for their mandatory updates to State Wildlife Action Plans for 2025.
“In our collaborations with state agencies and regional conservation groups, we recognized the need to enhance the accessibility of eBird data for these partners,” explained Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, assistant director of the Cornell Lab’s Center for Avian Population Studies and the initiator behind the creation of the state summaries.
“By offering tailored summaries, state agencies can avoid the hassle of dealing with extensive data and complex spatial tools. They receive focused data specific to their jurisdiction,” added Andrew Stillman, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab. “This approach is far more efficient, conserving both time and resources.”
State Wildlife Action Plans are essential for conservation efforts across the United States, Stillman emphasized. These plans require updates every decade and must be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approval. This approval unlocks funding from the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program, which supports preemptive efforts to protect birds and the rich variety of species within each state.
The updates for 2025 will represent the second significant adjustment to state wildlife plans since their initial completion in 2005. For the first time, planners will have access to eBird state data summaries to guide these updates, allowing them to easily determine which species are most in need of conservation efforts and to prioritize actions accordingly.
Without weekly bird abundance data from eBird throughout the year, critical information remains overlooked. For instance, tundra swans do not breed in Michigan and are absent for most of the year, but during two weeks in March, nearly 13% of the global population migrates through Michigan, underscoring the importance of marsh and wetland habitats as resting places during their long migration back to their Arctic breeding grounds.
The state summaries receive annual updates that include the latest population figures from eBird. With the most recent update in August 2024, planners can now assess population trends across the state: whether they are increasing, decreasing, or stable, as well as the extent of these changes.
“We will keep refining and updating the summaries to ensure states have access to the resources they need,” Stillman stated. “We are also exploring ways to broaden this customization for the approximately two dozen Migratory Bird Joint Ventures in the U.S. and Canada. Birds do not follow human-imposed borders, and these partnerships collaborate across regions to protect birds and their necessary habitats. State planners have asked us to continue providing this information.”
