Vital Sign Monitoring: Landbirds

Iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) like this one at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are among the most specialized honeycreepers in the world

Description & Rational
Birds are the principal terrestrial vertebrates on islands. Empowered by flight, birds typically out-distance other animals in their ability to reach and colonize islands. Largely free from the factors that limit bird populations on continents, the Pacific islands originally were havens for birds. In addition, the birds of Pacific islands are composed overwhelmingly of endemic species. Two characteristics of island bird communities are (a) population densities were, and often still are, much higher than on continents, and (b) island birds have lost some defenses to biotic factors that would exploit them. Furthermore, from their position at the top of the terrestrial food chain, birds more strongly influence ecological processes on islands than on continents as consumers, pollinators, and seed vectors. On Pacific islands, birds pollinate the majority of woody plant species and disperse their seeds. The native forests in the PACN harbor bird communities that not only are representative for each island, but in many cases are of great importance to the conservation of the birds themselves.

Brief Monitoring Objectives
Objectives: Determine the distribution and density of all non-threatened native and most non-native land bird species. Determine the distribution and estimate reproductive success and annual survival for birds of special interest, including threatened and endangered species, species of concern, and species that require more precise monitoring than is provided by count surveys. Document all observations of rare or elusive birds, or newly arrived invasive bird species. Monitor the changes in population abundance and species composition of native and non-native forest passerine species relative to management actions corresponding to forest restoration (e.g., alien plant and animal control) and reforestation.

Vital Sign Monitoring Status & Trends
The Landbirds monitoring protocol was completed and submitted for peer review in October 2006.

• Protocal Documents (in development)
• Hawaii Forest Bird Interagency Database Project
• Cooperators
• Lowland Bird Inventory

: Foraging for food in the National Park of American Samoa sometimes takes birds like this Wattled Honeyeater (Foulehaio carunculata) deep into flowers

• Landbirds Monitoring Resource Brief
• Landbirds Monitoring Movie – Coming Soon!
• Landbirds Monitoring Photo Gallery - Coming Soon!

Contact Information
Principal Investigator
Thane Pratt
USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center
P.O. Box 44
Hawaii National Park, HI 96718
thane_pratt <at> usgs.gov