Submit Red Knot, Piping Plover, and Roseate Tern sightings—Your eBird Data may aid conservation!

Why are we asking for Piping Plover, Red Knot, and Roseate Tern sightings?

As you are all acutely aware, our global community is facing unprecedented energy challenges as we move forward in the 21st Century. As we increasingly move away from fossil fuels, wind-generated power will become a more and more important source of energy. Dozens of wind farms are springing up all over the country and the world and these farms provide comparatively cheap energy that does not leave a significant carbon footprint. But it is increasingly apparent that these windmills kill birds. How and when they kill them (and when they do not) is the subject of much recent study and influences where and how the farms are placed. The American Bird Conservancy provides some discussion of this complex issue.

Given the large human population on the East Coast, wind farm development in our offshore waters of the Outer Continental Shelf will almost certainly be occurring over the next decade. Much research is currently being conducted as to how this will impact wildlife so that these farms can be sited in areas that pose the least risk to wildlife. When it comes to birds, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) is the federal agency that controls the windfarm siting. In cooperation with consulting groups, the MMS is looking to eBird and the Avian Knowledge Network (where all eBird records are archived) for information on the three bird species most at risk from wind farm development on the East Coast: Piping Plover, Red Knot, and Roseate Tern. These species migrate through the areas of proposed wind farm development and Roseate Tern feeds regularly in these offshore waters and is likely to be particularly at risk.

All three of these species are of national conservation concern: the Roseate Tern and Piping Plover are both Federally listed under the Endangered Species Act (Endangered for the Northeastern Roseate Terns, Threatened for the Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers), and the long-distance migrant population of Red Knot may be proposed for Federal listing in the near future. All of these species are dependent on coastal environments for feeding and pre-migratory staging, and (for the plover and tern) breeding.

The Atlantic Coast Piping Plover population has long been the focus of conservation concern, since its breeding grounds on Atlantic beaches tend to be the same areas frequented from May to September by throngs of beachgoers with their dogs, off-road vehicles, and other threats to these birds' delicate eggs and helpless chicks. The population remains relatively stable, but at risk, at only 1890 pairs (in 2007) and the even more imperiled inland birds comprise the remainder of this species’ population.

Roseate Tern is Cosmopolitan but has a Northeastern population which breeds exclusively on a few key islands from New York to Maine (mostly on Long Island and Cape Cod). Its populations have fluctuated: some colonies have been lost, but others have been repopulated (such as those in Maine). Finally, long-distance migrant Red Knots (Calidris rufa rufa) have experienced a precipitous decline in the past couple decade, with overharvesting of Horseshoe Crabs in several East Coast states having been indicated as one major cause for their decline. The Audubon Watchlist provides a summary of the status and issues surrounding the Red Knot as does this episode of Nature.

For all three species, losing even a small number of birds to windmill casualties could send the population into a decline (or a steeper decline). eBird can help paint an accurate picture of the distribution of these species, and each of your sightings will help towards this goal.

Where should you start?

In order to provide the best information to the agencies that will be deciding where these wind farms will go, please consider helping out. Here are some ideas on where to start.

1. Please check your state lists and county lists in My eBird. Make sure you enter sightings for all three species so that they show up for all the states and counties where you have observed them.
2. Check the Firsts, Lasts, and High Counts tool for areas where you have seen the species. Can you contribute records that would exceed or approach the extremes? If so, these data are especially important. High counts in particular are important since these will reveal where important staging areas are and how these staging areas may change across seasons and years. This is one example of a question that birders may be well-poised to help answer.
3. Think about any particularly memorable or unusual sightings you have for these species. If you observed interesting behavior, consider entering a comment about this next to your count.
4. If you have data on these (and other) species organized in a computerized file (bird listing software, personal database, or even a text file) that could be uploaded to eBird, please consider doing so; click here for instructions on uploading from a spreadsheet, here for import from Avisys, and here for import from Birdbase). If you need help uploading data that contains information on these species, feel free to contact Marshall Iliff (mji26@cornell.edu) for assistance.
5. Best of all, check out your World Life List in eBird. Click on the name of each of these species to see a list of all sightings you have entered. Is every Roseate Tern, Piping Plover, and Red Knot that you have ever seen shown here? Is there any chance you could get them all in? If so, that would be great.
6. If you are aware of any individuals or organizations with significant amounts of data for these species, PLEASE LET US KNOW at mji26@cornell.edu.

Even if you have only seen each of these species once, you sightings will contribute to the puzzle and every piece is an essential part of the whole. We always encourage you to submit complete checklists with effort when possible, which allows us to use data for all species, not just the ones we are targeting here. Submitting complete checklists, and indicating that you have done so, gives us insight into where species are NOT being seen as well as where they are. This is essential to understanding bird distribution and occurrence.

eBird and Conservation

The eBird database has grown to over 20 million records of bird sightings and we are often asked just how eBird data is being used for conservation. The Rusty Blackbird study is one example. Another example is the map of where eBirders were finding birds in San Francisco Bay during the time of the Cosco-Busan oil spill. This map by Point Reyes Bird Observatory was made within a matter of days and provided a tool that could help focus cleanup efforts on areas where species of concern were concentrated. All eBird data are publicly available through the Avian Knowledge Network, which automatically combines them with other bird data like the Breeding Bird Survey, Project Feederwatch, and dozens of other projects. As the eBird database grows, it increasingly is being used to inform conservation efforts. For better or worse, due to our large numbers and devotion to our passion, it is often the case that birders understand the basic distribution and occurrence of many species better than scientists. By contributing your sightings of every species you ensure that your sightings are available when needed.

So again, please enter all your bird observations in eBird, but if you are willing, the Roseate Terns, Red Knots, and Piping Plovers and other Endangered species may benefit most immediately from your observations. Consider digging up these sightings on a gray winter day and seeing if you can enter every sighting you have had of these species within eBird. And as always, complete checklists are preferred!