Katie Koch

The Avian Knowledge Alliance (AKA) is an international group of organizations dedicated to amassing, archiving, and communicating knowledge gained from the study of birds. The AKA brings together the unique capacities and roles of non‐government organizations (NGOs) with broad participation from government agencies, academic institutions and others. Together, these organizations provide the following: • Extensive involvement in ongoing monitoring of bird populations, including vital rates, using coordinated protocols, and sampling designs; • Sophisticated shared data management infrastructure; • Experience in data analysis and the design of Decision Support Tools; • Information flow within the context of Strategic Conservation; • Demonstrated improvements in efficiency and reductions in redundancy of efforts; and • Commitment to the 10 principles of NABCI’s Opportunities for Improving Avian Monitoring and The Northeast Bird Monitoring Handbook. Efforts are underway across North America to move away from independent, piecemeal efforts directing bird conservation to collectively improving bird monitoring. Much progress is being made, and many useful products are being delivered. As we collectively shift into the paradigm of landscape‐based, multi‐stakeholder conservation of bird populations, these success stories highlight how collective action is paramount for improving conservation design and delivery into the future.

The Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring Partnership is a regional network committed to informed bird conservation decisions through enhanced coordination and exchange of monitoring information. We are aligned to help biologists, biometricians, data managers, wildlife administrators, and citizen scientists achieve five overarching goals: Integration of monitoring into bird management and conservation; Broadening the scope of monitoring for species most at risk and for which we lack adequate information to make effective decisions; Coordination of programs among organizations and across spatial scales; Improvement of survey design, field methods, and data analysis; and Deployment of modern data management strategies. Since 2009, we have been accomplishing these goals through regular workshops, an interactive website, registry of Midwest bird monitoring programs, focused working groups, and a state-of-the-art system for archiving, analyzing, and accessing data. (We regularly partner with people outside of the Upper Midwest region on shared needs and to conserve birds across the annual cycle!)