MAPS is a cooperative constant-effort mist-netting program. The results presented in this website are based on extensive capture and recapture data recorded between 1992 and 2006 by hundreds of station operators and their thousand plus volunteer bird banders at a total of 628 MAPS stations located in 31 Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs) across the U.S. and southern Canada. Results for the 158 species included in this website were based on data from 403,711 individual adult birds captured and banded; 66,171 between-year recaptures of those adults; and 212,237 individual young (hatching year) birds captured and banded. We extend our deepest appreciation and most heartfelt gratitude to the skilled and dedicated operators and bird banders who collected the data at those 628 MAPS stations, and to all other MAPS station operators as well. This website could not have been produced without your contributions of data. Thank you very much!!
A large-scale long-term cooperative program such as MAPS could not have been initiated and brought to fruition without the vision, expertise, and advice offered freely by so many scientists, avian researchers, and conservationists. In particular, we extend our sincere thanks to the following persons who were instrumental in the establishment and early evaluation of the MAPS program: Stephen Baillie, Sam Droege, Paul Geissler, Joe Hautzenroder, Jim Hines, Bill Kendall, Bill Link, Jim Nichols, Will Peach, Bruce Peterjohn, C. J. Ralph, Chandler Robbins, Dan Rosenberg, John R. Sauer, Peter Stangel, John Tautin, and John Trapp.
We also extend our thanks to those who, over the years, shared their thoughts, results, advice, and wisdom with us; collaborated on analyses or presentations of MAPS data; offered and often secured support, both financial and otherwise, for MAPS; taught us how to solve problems we faced as the program grew; or inspired us by their commitment to scientific rigor or love of landbirds: David Ainley, John Alexander, Dawn Balmer, Barb Bresson, Danny Bystrak, Bob Cooper, Randy Dettmers, Jared Diamond, Chris Eberly, Paul Ehrlich, Luke George, Geoff Geupel, David Graber, Mike Green, Mary Gustafson, Pat Heglund, Richard Holmes, Lesley-Anne Howes, Katie Koch, Joe LaManna, Peter Marra, Tom Martin, Rachel Mazur, Eugene Morton, Barry Noon, Lisa Norris, Nadav Nur, David Pashley, Terry Rich, Rob Robinson, Scott Robinson, Ken Rosenberg, John Rotenberry, Andy Royle, Ivan Samuels, Paul Schmidt, Brian Sharp, Tom Sherry, Scott Sillett, Ted Simons, Thomas Smith, Fernando Spina, Sarah Stock, Monica Tomosy, Jan van Wagtendonk, John Wiens, and David Winkler.
Financial support for conducting the analyses that yielded the results presented in this website was provided by Grant Agreements 98210AG012 from the Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 50154-1-G011A from the Division of Migratory Birds, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Financial support for the development and production of this website was provided by grants from the March Foundation and private donations to The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), including special donations from an anonymous donor. We thank these agencies, foundation, and donors for this critical support, without which this website could not have been created.
Financial support over the many years for the MAPS program itself has come from numerous federal and state agencies, private foundations and non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, and the many generous donors and contributors to IBP. Some of the most important of these, which made possible the long-term operation of large numbers of MAPS stations on federal landholdings, were: USDA Forest Service – Region 6 and Region 1; USDI National Park Service – Cape Cod National Seashore and Denali, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, Shenandoah, and Yosemite National Parks; USDI Fish and Wildlife Service – Region 7; USDOD – Legacy Resource Management Program and Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program; US Army – Forts Belvoir, Bragg, Hood, and Leonard Wood; US Navy – Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command; Texas National Guard – Camps Bowie and Swift; Flathead Indian Reservation; Nature Reserve of Orange County; Owl Moon Environmental Inc.; and Yosemite Conservancy. Some of the most important sources of funding for the analysis of MAPS data and publication of MAPS results have been: USDA Forest Service – Region 6, Region 5, and Region 9; USDI National Park Service – Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Division of Migratory Bird Management, Region 1, Region 3, Region 5, and Region 7; National Biological Service; National Biological Information Infrastructure; U.S. Geological Service, Biological Resources Division; Bureau of Land Management – Oregon State Office; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; USDOD Legacy Resources Management Program; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (through San Francisco State University and UCLA); National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (through UCLA); E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, and donors to IBP. We are extremely grateful for the funding provided by all of these sources.
We also offer our deepest appreciation and sincere thanks to the personnel of the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (and the Bird Banding Office of the Canadian Wildlife Service) for their cooperation with the MAPS program, for providing Banding Permits and Subpermits, as appropriate, to the many qualified bird banders who have contributed MAPS data, and for providing the many hundreds of thousands of bird bands used in this program; and to John Shipman of Zoological Data Processing for accurate and rapid computer entry of all MAPS data collected from stations operated by IBP biologists and interns, and from those independent MAPS stations whose operators were unable to provide computer entry of their data.
Many dedicated IBP staff biologists and research scientists have been involved, over the years, in the testing and standardization of the MAPS protocol, supervision of data collection at IBP-operated MAPS stations, development and testing of computer data verification routines and incorporation of them into MAPSPROG, actual detailed verification of data from several thousand station-years, and analysis of data and drafting of peer-reviewed publications and research reports. In particular, for their excellent work over all the years, we thank Sara Boyle, Ken Burton, Elias Elias, Eric Feuss, Amy Finfera, Dan Froehlich, Richard Gibbons, Kelly Gordon, Lauren Helton, Denise Jones, Amy McAndrews, Nicole Michel, Phil Nott, Todd Plummer, Peter Pyle, Erin Rowan, Eric (Zed) Ruhlen, Victor Sepulveda, Hilary Smith, Ron Taylor, Pilar Velez, Brett Walker, Kerry Wilcox, Bob Wilkerson, Oriane Williams, and Mellissa Winfield.
Finally, we thank Steve Albert and Rodney Siegel for offering valuable advice and editing the text presented on this website, Steve Albert and Lauren Helton for finding and preparing the images of birds included on the website, Chris Shackleton for web architecture and engineering, and Bob Wilkerson for domain registration and troubleshooting.