2017 Breeding Bird Census Results

Since 1977, Senior Naturalist Dave Erler has conducted a census in early June of bird species that nest on the Science Center campus. The census is done primarily by ear, listening for territorial songs of male birds, indicating probable nesting. The census gives us a snapshot of the bird population by doing the review on approximately the same date each year. This year we held the census on June 10.

The zones referred to below roughly correspond to: Zone 1 – 30 acres that make up the primary use areas (buildings, exhibits, fields etc.); Zone 2 - +/- 100 acres of forests partly logged for forest management in 2016; Zone 3 - +/- 100 acres of other managed forest area.

We saw a total of 46 individual species and 113 individual birds. See the full details of species and location.