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AUTHORS: Ellen Grocholski, Northland College; Nicholas M. Anich, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Paula Spaeth Anich, Northland College; Elaine Gallenberg, Northland College; Ryan S. Brady, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
ABSTRACT: The Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II (WBBA II) is an ongoing comprehensive field effort to document the abundance and distribution of birds breeding in Wisconsin to be used for management and conservation purposes. Point count surveys are a component of this larger project, designed to enable the estimation of abundance for songbird species. In 2016, 4,036 WBBA II point counts, conducted by 25 different surveyors and detected 19,000 birds, resulting in a data matrix with 91,090 cells. We checked the data in each cell against the surveyors’ original field datasheets, and identified errors. Here we report on error rates from this dataset by category of surveyor (WI DNR staff; paid field technician; volunteer atlaser) and error type. We hope our results will inform scientists and managers working with similarly large datasets.
