4th Wildlife Viewing & Nature Tourism Academy

Recent research suggests North America has lost 3 billion birds since 1970, with some of the steepest declines occurring in grassland birds. These include species such as the Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus). The Loggerhead Shrike is a predatory songbird that has declined 76% across its range and is a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Texas, which hosts 6% of North America’s breeding shrikes and 22% of wintering shrikes. Currently, we understand little about what is driving shrike declines, and a coordinated effort is needed to evaluate nesting and productivity in order to allow comparisons across studies. In Central Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture have partnered to study a population of resident shrikes that breed in Old Settlers Park, which is a public park in Round Rock, TX, that is subject to intensive recreational use year-round. This location is not only ideal for collecting valuable information about productivity, but also presents an opportunity to involve community scientists and develop a monitoring program that can be integrated into larger-scale, coordinated research and monitoring. We will introduce the Urban Loggerhead Shrike Nest Monitoring Project, a community science project that engages local volunteers in protocol-driven nest monitoring via Esri’s Survey123 and Field Maps data collection apps.  We will share lessons learned from the development of this project, its protocol, and survey form and outcomes from the pilot season that may be useful to other coordinated efforts to involve community scientists in data collection for priority species.