Every year in late spring and summer, biologists and technicians traipse across mountains, prairies and deserts to survey birds under the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program. The program, coordinated by the Bird Conservancy, is one of the largest of its kind in North America, stretching across public and private land in many states in the western United States. Learn more about the IMBCR program.

In 1995, the Bird Conservancy and partners began efforts to create and conduct a Colorado-wide program to monitor breeding bird populations. This was the first attempt in the nation to develop and implement a statewide all-bird monitoring plan. Today, statewide bird monitoring takes place in several states, including Colorado and Wyoming, as part of the larger Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program.

More than 270 parks managed by the National Park Service are organized into a system of 32 eco-regional networks linked by similar geographic and natural resource characteristics. The Bird Conservancy works with the National Park Service to monitor birds on several of these networks. The Bird Conservancy has conducted habitat-based surveys in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network since 2005. In 2013, the Bird Conservancy began monitoring birds in the Northern Great Plains Network under the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program.

National forests and grasslands provide important habitat for diverse bird species. In 2001, the Bird Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service began a partnership to monitor bird populations on Forest Service lands, including National Grasslands. Before then, no long-term bird monitoring programs existed for National Grasslands. Today, the Bird Conservancy monitors bird populations on forests and grasslands across several Forest Service regions, including all of Region 1 and Region 2 and portions of Region 3 and Region 4, as part of the larger Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program.

Bureau of Land Management lands in the western United States provide key habitat for a variety of sagebrush and grassland species The Bird Conservancy partners with the BLM to survey birds on BLM lands in several western states, including Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota, as part of the larger Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is an independent organization created to manage large‐scale ecological observing systems and experiments on behalf of the scientific community. Its mission is to design, implement and operate continental scale research infrastructure, to open new horizons in ecological science and education, and to enable ecological analyses and forecasts for the benefit of society. The Bird Conservancy partners with NEON to conduct breeding bird surveys across many of its ecological sites in the United States. Through this project, the Bird Conservancy is teaming up with partners across the U.S. to survey approximately 60 different sites from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

The Bird Conservancy has partnered with the City of Fort Collins to inventory and monitor grassland birds on city-owned properties in northern Colorado. Learn more about the Mountains to Plains project.

Many bird species migrate thousands of miles a year, living a large portion of their lives on wintering grounds outside of the U.S. The Bird Conservancy monitors these birds during the winter months, with a focus on the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands and other areas in Mexico. Learn more about our monitoring work abroad on our International pages.