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M.A.P.S.

Photo by Mark Harrison

Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS)

The LSLBO operates three out of the four existing MAPS sites in the boreal forest. In terms of passerines and other small landbirds, MAPS is the only avian monitoring program that offers survivorship estimates on adult birds as well as productivity indices at the landscape level.

Without this critical data, it's difficult to determine to what extent deforestation and forest fragmentation on the temperate breeding grounds, versus that on the tropical wintering grounds, are causes for declining populations of neotropical migrant landbirds.

The Breeding Bird Survey, the Breeding Bird Census, and the Christmas Bird Count fail to provide data on demographic parameters.

The program, MAPS, is designed according to the 1998 MAPS Manual by David F. Desante and Kenneth M. Burton, The Institute for Bird Populations.