Iowa's Breeding Birds

The Iowa Ornithologists’ Union and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are pleased to announce that the second Iowa Breeding Bird Atlas will begin in 2008. This 5-year project will collect information on the current ranges of Iowa’s breeding birds. Numerous changes to Iowa’s landscape in the 17 years since the first atlas project was completed in 1990 (e.g., widespread wetland restorations and the CRP program) suggest that a second atlas project will reveal many changes. For example, think about range expansions of species like Eurasian Collared-Dove, Henslow’s Sparrow, and Great-tailed Grackle, or as yet undiscovered breeders (Northern Saw-whet Owl in Northeast Iowa?). To be successful, this project will require many hours of volunteer help from birders statewide. Atlasing is a fun way to bird during summer and a great way to explore new areas, so we’re hoping IOU members will lend their full support to this important project!

Your help is needed!  With the technology changes since the first atlas project, this time we will be able to follow the progress over the next few years as Iowans canvas their areas and determine the status of our summer residents.  Use this site to enter your data  and watch the progress.  Start by checking the map  for blocks needing some work then get out there and have some fun.

Where Can My Time Be Of Most Help?

In this final year of data collection for BBA2, not surprisingly a majority of blocks have not reached the goal of 20 hours of effort. These under-surveyed blocks may be seen at a glance on our progress map, but it can be a bit overwhelming to know where to go to do the most good. For this final year the BBA Steering Committee has identified a number of habitat blocks where, with a bit more effort, we will have better statistically-reliable data for use in analyzing the status of Iowa's breeding birds. In addition to the minimal time needed in these blocks, we have buttons allowing you to examine which blocks have fewer than 60 species, and which blocks have less than 50% of species confirmed. The last catergory will be the most dynamic as the season progresses. This map highlights these under-reported blocks. Next time you want to try birding a new area and add to the BBA effort, think about visiting one of these areas.



Answers to many of the questions asked about this BBA may be found in the FAQ.  For a more detailed description of how the blocks were selected, read about the sampling methodology used to set our sample blocks.   And don't forget to check out the instructions for atlasing  as well as how to use this web site .