3  Executive Summary

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (Bird Conservancy), in conjunction with our partners, conducted the 17th consecutive year of landbird monitoring for the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program. IMBCR is based on a spatially balanced sampling design which provides inference to avian populations at various scales, from local management units to entire states or Bird Conservation Regions, facilitating conservation at local and national levels. The nested design also provides a consistent and flexible framework for understanding and comparing the status and annual changes of bird populations with local and regional context. Collaboration across organizations and spatial scales increases sample sizes and improves the accuracy and precision of population estimates. Analyzing the data collectively allows us to estimate detection probabilities for species that would otherwise have insufficient numbers of detections at local scales. For these reasons, the IMBCR program is well-positioned to address conservation and management needs for a wide range of stakeholders, encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to bird conservation that combines monitoring, research, and management.

In 2024, the IMBCR program’s area of inference encompassed four entire states (Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming) and portions of 12 additional states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Texas). We surveyed across US Forest Service (USFS) Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4; all of the Badlands and Prairies Bird Conservation Region (BCR 17), and portions of nine other BCRs: Great Basin (9), Northern Rockies (10), Prairie Potholes (11), Sierra Nevada (15), Southern Rockies/Colorado Plateau (16), Shortgrass Prairie (18), Central Mixed Grass Prairie (19), Sonoran and Mojave Deserts (33), and Sierra Madre Occidental (34).

Observers conducted 17,844 point counts within 1,627 sampling units between April 25 and July 18, 2024. They detected 206,829 individual birds representing 371 species. This report summarizes the results of the 2024 field season.

The IMBCR program has now collected avian occurrence and density data throughout the western US for up to 17 years in some regions. These data enable the program to provide critical trend information on bird populations at local and regional scales. We highlight two examples of these trends for managers and decision-makers to monitor both priority species of concern and common species in decline by accessing data via our recently updated Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center.