Bird Surveyor

Dear fellow birders, 

We are looking for birders to conduct surveys this summer in the Sisters Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest. This research project is organized by scientists at Oregon State University-Cascades and University of British Columbia in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Birding Association, and the East Cascades Audubon Society. The study will document the distribution of birds along an elevational gradient for future comparisons under climate change. While the study will sample all birds seen or heard, there is particular interest in woodpeckers and secondary cavity nesters.

We are seeking five bird surveyors who are skilled in bird identification and who can commit to running a survey route four times during the coming breeding season. Each route comprises 10 point-count stations which will be censused between 5 and 11 a.m. Surveys will occur four times between mid-May and mid-July, approximately every 2 weeks. 

All stations are accessed by either paved or well-maintained Forest Service roads and require the surveyor to walk approximately 100 meters off the road.

Bird surveyors will receive modest compensation of $250 - $500 for the season. The final amount is still to be determined but will be known by early March, before anyone is asked to commit to the project. 

Requirements for the positions are:

·      You have your own vehicle; 

·      You are available for training for two hours on two mornings in mid-May, and for 4 full mornings of bird surveys;

·      You are able to identify all breeding birds on the eastern slope of the Central Oregon Cascades by sight and sound;

·      You have excellent attention to detail and the ability to record data collected at each station in the format required;

·      You enjoy ‘birding with a purpose’ and have a broad interest in habitat and species conservation in the region, plus a desire to contribute valuable data to understanding how climate change will affect bird communities.

·      All participants will be listed in the Acknowledgments section of the published manuscript.

Ideal participants will have experience conducting passive point-count surveys, but training will be provided in the use of all equipment and in all survey protocols, including point counts.

If you are interested, please email Steve Shunk (steve@paradisebirding.com) with your birding and biological survey experience and your availability from May through July. We look forward to hearing from you!

Steve Shunk, Professional Naturalist and Field Biologist

Matt Orr, Assistant Professor, Biology, OSU-Cascades

Kurt Trzcinski, Research Associate, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences

University of British Columbia