Kyla Yuza-Pate
Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)
The Northern Bobwhite (hereafter bobwhite) is a quail species that resides in the eastern United States. In early fall, they form groups that we refer to as 'coveys,' and shortly before dawn they produce a unique call that state natural resource agencies can use for population monitoring purposes. As recommended by the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, participating agencies send out human observers to the field early in the morning during fall months to conduct 45-minute counts, where data such as the number of coveys calling is recorded. Doing such covey counts is important as the bobwhite population has been in steep decline since the 1960's, and is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need here in Iowa.
Autonomous Recording Units
Autonomous recording units (hereafter ARUs) are small devices with microphones attached that researchers can program to record audio during specified times of day. Using the audio, we can extrapolate important information regarding populations for many taxa, most prominently being birds. Some advantages of using ARUs over in-person surveys include cheap operating costs and the decrease in bias caused by human disturbance during the surveys.
My Project Objectives
Assess some of the limitations of using ARUs for bird surveys:
- If you have different observers processing the audio, will there be a significant difference in the total duration and number of birds calling?
Improve the efficiency and efficacy of ARU fall bobwhite surveys:
- How does bobwhite calling vary throughout the season?
- Can we reduce the amount of audio processed from 50 minutes to 30 minutes without losing a significant amount of data?
Research Poster
Funding Organization: Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Duration: 04/21/2019
Principal Investigator(s): Adam Janke