Vermont Forest Indicators Dashboard

Forest Bird Diversity

Score for 2018:
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Long-Term Trend:
Scores are 
Vermont’s forests provide important habitat for certain species of birds that need interior forest patches for breeding, food, and cover from predators. Further, trees rely on birds for flower pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control1. Examining annual bird counts of forest-dwelling bird species can provide an indication of the quality of the forest habitat in supporting wildlife. Here, forest-bird diversity is assessed using a Living Planet Index (LP1)2. The current year is scored as the difference between the maximum and minimum (scaled 0-1).
1Vermont Center for Ecosystem Studies. 2017. The Status of Vermont Forest Birds: A Quarter Century of Monitoring. Available at: https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/8175131
2Collen, B., Loh, J., Whitmee, S., McRAE, L, Amin, R. and Baillie, J.E., 2009. Monitoring change in vertebrate abundance: the Living Planet Index. Conservation Biology, 23(2), pp.317-327.