Landbirds Quick Reads

As part of national efforts to inventory vertebrates and vascular plants and conduct long-term monitoring of critical natural resources, the National Park Service conducted bird surveys at Mt. Wanda of John Muir National Historic Site. The goal was to develop a comprehensive list of birds present at the park, especially during the peak breeding season, to help inform park management activities.

With their varied microclimates, large swaths of protected wild lands, and position along a major migratory pathway, the National Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area host some of the largest and most diverse assemblages of landbirds in the United States. Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore have a long history of landbird monitoring, with some sites surveyed since the mid-1960s.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore encompass 160,000 acres of wild areas and diverse habitats, enabling them to host a wide array of birds. During the breeding seasons of 1998 through 2000, Point Blue Conservation Science conducted landbird surveys along 61 transects throughout the parks. This inventory, along with additional sightings by park staff and visitors, resulted in observations of 129 species that breed in the parks.

The protected status of Pinnacles and the quantity, quality, and variety of its habitats offer a unique opportunity for bird studies in California’s central coast. In 1996, the National Park Service identified birds as a major component of ecosystems to be inventoried and monitored. Soon after, they repeated an older bird inventory, and inventoried new park lands for the first time. These inventories helped establish a baseline for current landbird monitoring at the park.