Breeding Atlas

Atlasing makes people notice more about birds. 

 This spring, I’m not just casually watching the birds while gardening. I am “Atlasing,” noting any breeding behaviors I observe and sharing them, as part of New York State’s third Breeding Bird Atlas. Like parallel surveys in many other states, this is a five-year-long undertaking conducted every 20 years to give conservation decision makers the information they need about bird populations and locations.

“Atlasing makes people notice more about birds,” said Dr. Schneider, the author of “Birding the Hudson Valley,” about the lives of the region’s birds and where to see them. “You have to really watch them — not, ‘Oh, it’s a robin,’ but what it does.”

To that end, there are 23 behavior codes to choose from, to qualify each entry recorded.

For example: C, for courtship behavior. That’s how I marked my cardinals and that insistent mourning dove chasing his target. A week later, I checked P, for pair (as in, they’d paired up), when I saw two doves, side by side, preening — nuzzling and almost nibbling the feathers at each other’s head and neck.

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Breeding atlas - link

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