Click here for a high graphics version

Objectives:

• Students will connect to Internet.
• Students will learn what birds are residents of their area.
• Students will study land use maps of their area.

Procedure:

1. Access the Internet using Internet Explorer or Netscape.

2. Go to the web site for the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

3. Select About the BBS heading under General Information and read the information about the site and the presentation of data. If you are curious about taxonomy of birds, click on A Note on Taxonomy. There is some very interesting information located there.

4. Click on the Species Account icon under Learning Tools and select a bird that is of interest to you.

A. Choose Life History Data and print out the information.
B. Click on Identification Tips (some birds may not have this information) and print out the information.
C. Select Photograph to print out the picture.
D. You may try to download the Song. (Caution: it takes some time and may lock up the operating system.) Some songs include the killdeer, loon, and robin.
E. Click on Breeding Distribution and print out the map.
F. Click on the Winter Distribution Map and print out the map. (If available)

6. Click on the Trend Maps (as you print each of these out, you will need to label them so as to keep them straight.

A. Scroll down the list of birds to locate the bird that you have just gathered information for. Print out the map that shows the % Change per year, then click on the Species Account button at the bottom of the page.
B. Click on Time Series and print out the graph.
C. Click on Range Map and print out the map.

8. Click on the Interactive Summary-three year species.

A. Scroll down the list of birds and locate your bird from the list, locate the area that you are interested in and click on the button to get the information. (You will get information for numerous states, that's fine.)
B. Click on the state that you are interested in and a graph will appear. Print out the graph.

10. Click on the land use map for Montana or Wyoming and record how the land is used in the locale for each of the birds you have chosen.

11. Print out an overhead transparency for each species of bird you chose.

12. Print out an overhead transparency of the land use map.

13. Overlay the two transparencies.

14. Has the land use changed over the years?

15. Has the bird population changed over the years?

16. As you compare the transparencies, can you draw any correlations between the land use and the change in population? If so, what might they be?

17. If you are located in Washington, there is a unique opportunity for you to become directly involved through Nature Mapping.

Other On-line resources:

The Birds of North America

The Bird Watching Forum

Birding

The Washington Gap Homepage

Note: The bird songs on this and the bird habitat page are courtesy of Sauer, J. R., J. E. Hines, G. Gough, I. Thomas, and B. G. Peterjohn. 1997. The North American Breeding Bird Survey Results and Analysis. Version 96.3. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.