Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions within Playa Lakes Joint Venture

The Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program is one of the largest breeding bird monitoring programs in North America. The program was developed in 2007 to address the need for a collaborative avian monitoring program that produces scientifically defensible estimates of bird distribution and abundance across various spatial scales. The program’s objectives were established following guidelines published by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s (NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee for improving avian monitoring in North America. NABCI outlined four recommendations: (1) fully integrate monitoring into bird management and conservation practices; (2) coordinate monitoring programs among organizations and integrate them across spatial scales; (3) increase the value of monitoring information by improving statistical design; and (4) maintain bird population monitoring data in modern data management systems (US North American Bird Conservation Initiative 2007).