Pei-Fen Lee
Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
National Taiwan University
1
Development and Purposes
 Biodiversity action plan in Taiwan
 Committee of Sustainable Development
 Environmental monitoring
 Specific wildlife groups
 Mammal (bat), bird, amphibian, and butterfly
2
Bird Monitoring
 What?
 Breeding or migratory species?
 Where?
 Spatial coverage
 When?
 Efficient and representative
 How?
 Standard protocol
 A comprehensive survey covering entire
Taiwan using volunteers on 155 breeding
bird species
3
Previous Work or Development
 Sustainable indicators initiated by EPA
 Only in design phase, no further survey
 Biodiversity inventory by Council of
Agriculture
 Only in northern Taiwan
 5 years
 Local sustainable indicators
 Taipei city (2007- )
4
Biodiversity Inventory
 Only 5 year
 1999～2003
 200 projects
 Convenient sampling
 Data records: 0.8 million
 Most are vegetation (0.55
million)
 With location info.
 Not well designed
5
Previous Work or Development
 Forest bird survey
 Only last for 2 years
 New year bird count
 Only last for 2 years
 Not well organized
 Bird inventory by bird societies
 Comprehensive in spatial scale, but no clear
geo-records and no standard sampling
protocol
6
BBS in North America
•1966
•>7100
•>3000 routes
7
BBS in UK
1994
>2000/yr
>3000 sites
8
Single Species Monitoring
Cattle Egret in North America
 Short term: Distribution
 Summer
 Long term: changes
 1966 till now
9
Summer Visitors’ Population Trend in UK
•50% reduction
since 1994
•Conservation
strategy
10
Sustainable Development Indicators
 In UK
•Ecological
monitoring: 50%
reduction in farm
birds
•Biodiversity
strategy
11
Indicators for Long-term Monitoring
 Same location
 Fixed survey time
 Long-term survey
 Proper design to adapt to budget, time and
human resources constraints
12
Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey
 Long-term survey on breeding birds
 Large spatial scale
 Standard protocol
 Aims: ecological monitoring info,
sustainable development indicators,
distribution change under climate change
impact, …
 Data will open to the public
13
Participants
 Bird societies
 Institute of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology,
National Taiwan University
 Endemic Species Research
Institute (since 2010)
14
Selecting Sampling Sites
• Stratified random
sampling scheme
• Representative of the
environment
– Ecoregion
– Elevation (ecosystems)
• Volunteers
– Roads available, but
avoiding overdeveloped areas
15
Point Count
Cumulative species (%)
How much time spent in one point: 6 min.
6 min to reach 80%
Time (min.)
16
When to conduct survey?
0-5 hrs after sunrise
Breeding
繁殖季 season
數相對百分比
Bird detected (%)
100
Noon
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Hours after sunrise (hr)
12
17
Sampling Sites (Routes) and Points
• Each sites:
6 – 10 points
• Point spacing >
200m
• Points should be <
4km in length
18
Each Point:
6 min survey time
• Identifying the species
by sight or sound –
avoid double sampling
• Recording distance
– <25m
– 25–100m
– >100m
– Passing by
火冠
戴菊鳥
0m
金翼白眉
巨嘴鴉
(飛行沒有降落)
煤山雀
25m
100m
Which Months?
• Twice per breeding season
• Consideration of the elevation difference
> 2500 m,
May & June
1000-2500 m,
April & June
< 1000 m,
March & May
Training Lessens
Field Training in Different
Ecosystems
Field Training
Field data
recording
sheet
Field data recording sheet
Web pages of Taiwan’s
BBS
Excel format sheet to
record survey data
Survey data submitted
via the Internet
Organizations and Volunteers
 Volunteers: >200
 Organization: >20
2009 BBS
 160 sites with 1,296 points
 Cover all major ecosystems
 118 volunteers
 128 breeding species
 202 species, > 90,000 bird
records
30
2009-2011: >240 sites
 2009 - 2010
 All (500 sites)
148 species
>90% of breeding
bird species (155)
in Taiwan
>230 species
2009 BBS data
Species richness
Density (#/ha)
33
2009 BBS data
Total
Density
(#/ha)
Average Abundance
of Breeding
Bird Species
of Breeding Bird
Species Richness
Richness
bySpecies
Elevation
25
Average Abundance (indv./ha)
Richness (Number of Species)
25
20
15
10
5
0
20
15
10
5
0
0
1000
2000
Elevation (m)
3000
4000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Elevation (m)
34
Species Population Index (2009-2010)
• 36 species
 Forest type: 26
 Grassland type: 10
Population Index (2009=100)
Population Index
150
All species
Forest type
Grassland type
125
Growth?
• Breeding birds +15%
• Forest birds: +13%
• Grassland birds: +22%
100
75
50
2009
2010
2009 BBS data
 Ranking by total abundance
平均值
物種比例
（隻數/ha）
1
麻雀
1
1.72
10.83%
白頭翁
2
1.35
8.51%
3 紅嘴黑鵯
0.95
5.97%
4 冠羽畫眉
0.82
5.21%
綠繡眼
5
0.74
4.67%
6 繡眼畫眉
0.64
4.05%
烏頭翁
7
0.51
3.25%
8 黃胸藪眉
0.48
3.04%
紅鳩
9
0.45
2.84%
洋燕
10
0.37
2.32%
排名
鳥種
37
Density Pattern of Family Pycnonotidae
Black
Bulbul
Chinese
Bulbul
Taiwan
Bulbul
Finch-billed
Bulbul
Protected species
 Level II
 Ring-necked pheasant
 Common species
 Bamboo Partridge
Exotic species
 North: Black-
throated laughing
thrush
 South: White-
rumped Shama
Species richness
No data
Elevation
Endemic species richness
Protected species richness
Rare Species
Fairy Pitta
Russet Sparrow
Black-napped Oriole
Maroon Oriole
Future of Taiwan BBS
 A monitoring database
 Environmental monitoring network
 Professional researchers
 Promoting sustainable development under
climate change by supplying suitable
information for decision-making
44
Volunteers
NGO
Government
& University
International cooperation