Southern Colorado Plateau Network Landbird Monitoring Dataset 2022-2024

This dataset covers three years of parkwide landbird monitoring data collected from 2022-2024 at six national parks and monuments within the Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory Monitoring Network. These data were collected with the objective of monitoring trends in breeding-season density of bird species frequently detected during point count surveys and tracking changes in breeding-season bird community composition at both the parkwide and network-wide scales. Data was collected yearly at Bandelier National Monument, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Wupatki National Monument. These parks span an elevational gradient ranging from 1300 to 3000 masl, and encompassing varied habitats including arid grassland-shrubland, riparian woodland, pinyon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine forest, and mixed-conifer forest. Survey data consists of unlimited-radius, seven-minute passive point-count surveys and includes time removal (interval of detection) and distance sampling (horizontal distance from observer) data. All individuals of all bird species detected by sight or sound were recorded during surveys, which were conducted during a 3.5 hour window immediately following local sunrise. Surveyors additionally classified the habitat at each point count station, and recorded survey-specific environmental covariates including wind speed, environmental noise, cloud cover, and precipitation. Surveys took place from late April through the end of June, with each park or monument surveyed once per year in order of increasing mean elevation. Surveys were conducted off-trail along transects following semicardinal bearings, with transect origin points situated on roads or trails within each protected area. Monitoring transects were randomly placed in a spatially representative manner using the GRTS algorithm.