What is a bird atlas?
A chance for skilled birdwatchers to contribute to a large citizen-science project monitoring changes in bird populations over time. Bird atlas projects consist of intensive surveys for birds in specific geographic regions during a specific period of time. They differ from informal birdwatching in that standardized survey designs and data collection and recording methods are employed, enabling repetition of the surveys over time, and comparisons of changes in bird distributions within a region from one iteration of an atlas to the next.
In North America, most state-level atlas projects are completed in a five-year time frame, and are repeated at 20-25-year intervals, providing long-term, intermittent monitoring of bird populations. Breeding bird atlases examining distributions of nesting birds are the most common type of bird atlas in North America, although in some regions here and abroad, year-round bird atlases are attempted. Oklahoma is one of few locations to have completed a winter bird atlas as well as a breeding bird atlas. There are 583 randomly selected blocks of land in Oklahoma that have been selected to be surveyed for each of the three Oklahoma bird atlases to date.
Bird atlas projects date back to Britain in the 1960s or 1970s, or even earlier in less formal versions. Widespread adoption in North America took place in the 1980s and 1990s, with a majority of states and provinces ultimately completing breeding bird atlases. Many of these states have completed or are currently working on second atlas projects, and some are even working on a third atlas.
Oklahoma’s first breeding bird atlas surveys took place from 1997-2001. Our second breeding bird atlas launched in 2020, with completion of surveys in 2024. The results from this second breeding bird atlas are being compared to those from the first atlas over 20 years ago to document any changes in bird distributions in Oklahoma during the intervening years.
Results will eventually be published in book format, similar that that published for the first Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas (2004) and the first Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas (2017), both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
