Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey: Ecological Monitoring

1. Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey: Ecological Monitoring Pei-Fen Lee Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology National Taiwan University

2. Development and Purposes • Biodiversity action plan in Taiwan • Committee of Sustainable Development • Environmental monitoring • Specific wildlife groups • Mammal (bat), bird, amphibian, and butterfly

3. Bird Monitoring • What? • Breeding or migratory species? • Where? • Spatial coverage • When? • Efficient and representative • How? • Standard protocol • A comprehensive survey covering entire Taiwan using volunteers on 155 breeding bird species

4. Previous Work or Development • Sustainable indicators initiated by EPA • Only in design phase, no further survey • Biodiversity inventory by Council of Agriculture • Only in northern Taiwan • 5 years • Local sustainable indicators • Taipei city (2007- )

5. Biodiversity Inventory • Only 5 year • 1999～2003 • 200 projects • Convenient sampling • Data records: 0.8 million • Most are vegetation (0.55 million) • With location info. • Not well designed

6. Previous Work or Development • Forest bird survey • Only last for 2 years • New year bird count • Only last for 2 years • Not well organized • Bird inventory by bird societies • Comprehensive in spatial scale, but no clear geo-records and no standard sampling protocol

7. BBS in North America • 1966 • >7100 • >3000 routes

8. BBS in UK 1994 >2000/yr >3000 sites

9. Single Species MonitoringCattle Egret in North America • Short term: Distribution • Summer • Long term: changes • 1966 till now

10. Summer Visitors’ Population Trend in UK • 50% reduction since 1994 • Conservation strategy

11. Sustainable Development Indicators • In UK • Ecological monitoring: 50% reduction in farm birds • Biodiversitystrategy

12. Indicators for Long-term Monitoring • Same location • Fixed survey time • Long-term survey • Proper design to adapt to budget, time and human resources constraints

13. TaiwanBreedingBirdSurvey • Long-term survey on breeding birds • Large spatial scale • Standard protocol • Aims: ecological monitoring info, sustainable development indicators, distribution change under climate change impact, … • Data will open to the public

14. Participants • Bird societies • Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University • Endemic Species Research Institute (since 2010)

15. Selecting Sampling Sites • Stratified random sampling scheme • Representative of the environment • Ecoregion • Elevation (ecosystems) • Volunteers • Roads available, but avoiding over-developed areas 15

16. Point Count How much time spent in one point: 6 min. Cumulative species (%) 6 min to reach80% Time (min.) 16

17. Bird detected (%) Noon Hours after sunrise(hr) When to conduct survey? 0-5 hrs after sunrise Breeding season 17

18. Sampling Sites (Routes) and Points • Each sites:6 – 10 points • Point spacing> 200m • Points should be <4km in length 18

19. Each Point:6 min survey time • Identifying the species by sight or sound – avoid double sampling • Recording distance • <25m • 25–100m • >100m • Passing by 火冠戴菊鳥 煤山雀 25m 0m 100m 金翼白眉 巨嘴鴉(飛行沒有降落)

20. Which Months? • Twice per breeding season • Consideration of the elevation difference > 2500 m, May & June 1000-2500 m, April & June < 1000 m, March & May

21. Training Lessens

22. Field Training in Different Ecosystems

23. Field Training

24. Field data recording sheet

25. Field data recording sheet

26. Web pages of Taiwan’s BBS

27. Excel format sheet to record survey data

28. Survey data submitted via the Internet

29. Organizations and Volunteers • Volunteers: >200 • Organization: >20

30. 2009 BBS • 160 sites with 1,296points • Cover all major ecosystems • 118volunteers • 128 breeding species • 202 species, > 90,000 bird records

31. 2009 - 2010 All (500 sites) 2009-2011: >240 sites

32. 148 species • >90% of breeding bird species (155)in Taiwan • >230 species

33. 2009 BBS data Density (#/ha) Species richness

34. 2009 BBS data Total Density (#/ha) Species Richness by Elevation

35. Species Population Index (2009-2010) • 36 species • Forest type: 26 • Grassland type: 10

36. Population Index 150 All species Forest type Grassland type 125 • Growth? • Breeding birds+15% • Forest birds:+13% • Grassland birds:+22% 100 Population Index (2009=100) 75 50 2009 2010

37. 2009 BBS data • Ranking by total abundance 1

38. BlackBulbul Chinese Bulbul TaiwanBulbul Density Pattern of Family Pycnonotidae Finch-billedBulbul

39. Protected species • Level II • Ring-necked pheasant • Common species • Bamboo Partridge

40. Exotic species • North: Black-throated laughing thrush • South: White-rumpedShama

41. Species richness Elevation No data

42. Endemic species richness Protected species richness

43. Rare Species Fairy Pitta Russet Sparrow Black-napped Oriole Maroon Oriole

44. Future of Taiwan BBS • A monitoring database • Environmental monitoring network • Professional researchers • Promoting sustainable development under climate change by supplying suitable information for decision-making

45. Volunteers Government& University NGO

46. International cooperation