Showing posts with label Birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birds. Show all posts

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Best Data Management Practices Document Now Available Online

NBII Bird Conservation Node Manager Elizabeth Martín and Grant Ballard of Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation Science compiled a document on best practices and standards for data management that is now available online. The document, titled "Data Management Best Practices and Standards for Biodiversity Data Applicable to Bird Monitoring Data," provides general information from various sources and serves as a reference guide for the management of bird monitoring data. It was developed as part of the activities of the Database Management Team of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee, and was endorsed by the U.S. NABCI Committee at their January 2010 meeting. To access the document, please visit the NABCI Web site.

(Photo: Crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) perched in a tree. © 2009 Elizabeth A. Sellers, from the NBII LIFE gallery).

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Bird Monitoring Data Management Paper Published

A paper summarizing results from a bird monitoring data management session led by Bird Conservation Node Manager Elizabeth Martín at the 2008 Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference is now published and available online as part of the Partners in Flight Conference Proceedings. The paper titled “Gathering, Organizing, and Accessing Data for Use in Bird Conservation across the Americas” can be accessed here; it was authored by Ms. Martín and NBII partners’ staff Bruce Peterjohn (USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center) and Steve Kelling (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). This paper and session, which identified data management needs for bird monitoring data in North America and provided recommendations for addressing those needs, served as an initial step for some of the bird monitoring data management activities now being undertaken by the U.S. Monitoring Subcommittee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI).

Monday, January 4, 2010

WDIN Interviews with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Geospatial Line of Business

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) staff were interviewed on September 25, 2009 by the Geospatial Line of Business (LOB), a cross-agency coordination of federal geospatial activities, about the Global Wildlife Disease News Map application. The Geospatial LOB strives to identify opportunities for highlighting efficiencies in government services. The News Map was selected because of its unique spatial approach to visualizing unstructured media information about emerging wildlife disease around the world.

Friday, December 18, 2009

New Focal Species Pages Launched

Web pages for the following focal bird species are now available online via the NBII Bird Conservation Node and Focal Species Web site: American Black Duck, Bicknell’s Thrush, Dunlin (arcticola ssp.), Greater Scaup, Hudsonian Godwit, Iiwi, Lesser Scaup, Mottled Duck, Sprague’s Pipit, and Upland Sandpiper. Content development for these new species homepages was a collaborative effort bringing together input from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and other federal and state agency personnel with expertise on these species. Additional information resources of relevance to each species will be incorporated into these focal species Web pages in the coming months. The Focal Species Strategy is an activity of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Program aimed at returning these species populations to healthy and sustainable levels. If you know of quality online information resources for these species that should be listed in the new focal species pages, please contact the Bird Conservation Node.


(Photo: Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)- Photo by Tim Bowman, FWS Digital Media Library)