A checklist approach for monitoring neotropical migrant birds: Twenty-year trends in birds of Quebec Using EPOQ

Abstract

EPOQ (Studies of Bird Populations in Quebec) is a data base on birds of Quebec containing more than 2.2 million records of observations recorded on 158,000 checklists from 3,600 observation sites since 1950. Trends were measured for each of four subsets of EPOQ data between 1970 and 1989 (all year, spring (April-May), summer (June-July), and fall (August-October) as well as for BBS (Breeding Bird Survey of U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv.) data for Quebec (1969 to 1989). Species were then separated into neotropical and temperate migrants, and trends compared between EPOQ subsets and data bases. The all year-EPOQ sub set reflects very well the dominantly decreasing trends of many neotropical and temperate migrant species that are also decreasing in the other data subsets (spring, summer and fall). In the summer-EPOQ subset and in BBS, there are more increasing trends when no trend was recorded in the all year-EPOQ subset. Most trends are similar for both EPOQ and BBS, except for nine of 74 species studied. General trends indicate significant decreases for 25 neotropical and 17 temperate migrants, and significant increases for 10 neotropical and 8 temperate migrants. Significantly decreasing species in all year-EPOQ belong to bird assemblages from maple forests, agricultural habitats, insectivorous in flight, and edge species, whereas non-significant trends in all year EPOQ or significantly increasing trends mainly in the summer-EPOQ or in BBS reveal more species belonging to boreal forest ecosystems.

Parent Publication

• Status and management of neotropical migratory birds

Citation

Cyr, Andre; Larivee, Jacques. 1993. A checklist approach for monitoring neotropical migrant birds: Twenty-year trends in birds of Quebec Using EPOQ. In: Finch, Deborah M.; Stangel, Peter W. (eds.). Status and management of neotropical migratory birds: September 21-25, 1992, Estes Park, Colorado. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-229. Fort Collins, Colo.: Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service: 229-236