Biological Projects

Station: Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge
Title: Landbird migration monitoring in the Upper Tanana Valley of Alaska
Principal Investigator: Bud Johnson
Management Implications/Justification: Landbirds are an important component of the biological diversity of North America and nearly 20% of the world's avifauna inhabit the continent. The Alaska Migration Monitoring Program was initiated to assess remote populations of migratory landbirds in Alaska that have not been adequately monitored by other methods. The Upper Tanana Valley is an ideal area for migration monitoring because it is a major corridor for landbirds migrating to and from Interior Alaska and significant numbers of a variety of landbird species can be sampled. Banding data from this and other stations are pooled to provide long-term monitoring of landbird populations.
Objectives: Identify important stopover areas and habitats and estimate temporal trends in population size and breeding productivity of landbirds.
Project timeframe: 1993-annual
Brief description of project: Constant effort mist-netting and is used during fall migration to capture, measure and band migrating landbirds. The effort is part of an interagency network of monitoring stations in Alaska.

Last updated: September 17, 2008