After a successful first year of the PBA3, it’s time to set our sights on the second breeding season! This guide outlines how use the upcoming weeks to plan for season two.
Blue-headed Vireo on nest. Photo: Doug Gross
In the Field
- Relatively few species are breeding this early in the season, but that number is slowly ticking up. Be on the lookout for those early breeders and regularly check the breeding guidelines chart to see which species are coming into season.
- Remember, confirmed breeding codes can be used whenever those behaviors are observed!
- Any time you are out and about, take note of locations that look promising for surveying during the breeding season.
Planning and Preparation for Principal Atlasers
- Double check last year’s blocks to see if any are complete. Contact your county coordinator if you need help reviewing a block.
- For incomplete blocks, compare the breeding species reported so far with the species lists from the previous atlases (found on the atlas map tool). You should be aiming to report a similar number of species for the block during the PBA3. Use core eBird to check for reported locations of species that haven’t been atlased in your block yet. Also keep in mind that some species have shown significant declines and/or range shifts in the last 20 years, and not all species previously reported in the block may still be found there.
- Identify where effort is lacking for your block, such as daytime or nocturnal effort or number of coded species and make plans to fill in those gaps.
- Check that at least 25% of coded species are confirmed. If not, consider which species could be upgraded and plan when and where to look for them.
- Review block maps to identify the accessible habitat types within your block and plan to visit any that have been missed.
- Take note of any priority species in your region that could potentially be found in your block and make plans to survey for them. If any are found, prioritize confirming breeding for those species, as this is really important data to collect!
- If your block contains little public land, you may need to identify private property to request access to survey. You may want to contact landowners early in the season to allow plenty of time before you need to visit. You can use this form to reach out to a landowner and provide them with more information about the PBA3. Let us know if you need help identifying the landowner of a specific location.
- If you have completed or nearly completed a block, consider adopting another block!
- Know when to call a block “good enough!” Once a block has met the completion criteria, it’s very helpful to get it marked complete in eBird even if you may still be birding and reporting/upgrading species in the block. This will help other atlasers identify where their efforts would be most useful.
General Tips for Atlasers
- If you are a skilled at birding by ear, consider signing up to conduct point count surveys in an open block in your area. There are four survey locations per block, and each survey takes only six minutes.
- We all have our favorite patches we like to bird in, but make efforts to branch out to new areas some of the time! Use the eBird effort map to identify blocks around you that need visiting.
- Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about 2025 block-boosting plans! These efforts will encourage small groups of birders to attempt to thoroughly cover blocks in some of our least atlased areas of the state during peak atlasing time. If you can’t attend any of these events, make your own block-boosting plans, on your own or with a birding buddy!