Effects of Grazing on Breeding Birds in CRP Grasslands, 1993-2017

The data set consists of bird abundance data collected in undisturbed (idle) and grazed grassland fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in six counties in three states (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota) in the northern Great Plains of the United States. Data were collected from 1990–2017; however, there were no CRP fields grazed during the first 3 years of the study, so only data from 1993–2017 were included in this data release. The data were summarized and used in the analysis for a peer-reviewed publication entitled: "Effects of Grazing on Breeding Birds in CRP Grasslands." The data consist of one data set that includes county, state, field identification, year, management treatment (idle or grazed 0-5 years earlier), field area (in hectares), and bird abundance (number of indicated breeding pairs) by species (listed by four-letter alpha codes for 10 focal bird species observed during the study).