The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), based in

Petaluma, California Petaluma (Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census. Petaluma's name comes from the Miwok village na ...

is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to studying and monitoring bird populations, and providing land managers and

policy makers Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...

with information needed to better manage those populations.

History

The Institute was founded in 1989 by Dr. David DeSante to develop and coordinate the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship Program (MAPS), a network of approximately 500 standardized

bird banding Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

stations studying breeding bird

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

s across North America. In June 2015, the Institute launched a website, the Vital Rates of North American Landbirds, tracking the population of 150 bird species in North America, to raise awareness about the population declines of those species.

Description

Scientists at the institute develop standardized bird monitoring techniques and tools for land managers and researchers studying bird populations, coordinate large-scale networks for monitoring vital rates of birds, conduct original research on the

abundance Abundance may refer to: In science and technology * Abundance (economics), the opposite of scarcities * Abundance (ecology), the relative representation of a species in a community * Abundance (programming language), a Forth-like computer prog ...

, distribution, and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

of birds, and convey their findings in scientific papers and reports to public and private land managers. The Institute also trains individuals, organizations, and agencies in the United States and abroad, in effective bird monitoring techniques.

Initiatives

* Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship Program (MAPS) * Monitoreo de Sobreviviencia Invernal Program (MoSI): a cooperative effort among agencies, organizations, and individual bird-banders in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to monitor overwintering survival rates of both

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

migratory and

resident bird Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

species * Research and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

efforts on behalf of birds in California's Sierra Nevada mountains (IBP's Sierra Nevada Bird Observatory) * Development and deployment of bird monitoring programs on public lands * Publication of ''Bird Populations'', an online, peer-reviewed journal of global avian research * 2015: Bird Genoscape Project, led by

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, first maps identifying the population-specific migration paths of several bird species to fix conservation priorities. * Creation and maintenance of a list of four- and six-letter abbreviations for North and Central American birds.

References

External links

*
Vital Rates of North American Landbirds
Ornithological organizations in the United States Environmental organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Zoological research institutes Research institutes in the San Francisco Bay Area Bird observatories in the United States Nature conservation organizations based in the United States Environmental organizations established in 1989 1989 establishments in California Organizations based in Marin County, California {{ornithology-stub