DoD AKN Standard Sampling Methods
Biologists across DoD are employing a diversity of avian monitoring sampling methods in support of their natural resource management activities. This diversity of protocols can make combining data and analyses among installations and service branches unnecessarily challenging. This results in inefficient and potentially inaccurate analyses that do not fully support understanding how activities on installations are affecting bird populations from local to regional scales.
One of the key motivations behind the DoD AKN Program is to promote consistent avian data standards across the DoD. To meet this objective, the Team has begun to develop and recommend standardized field sampling methods and AKN Protocols based on DoD’s most common management and research needs.
On this page, you will find a series of suggested standardized sampling methods and their associated AKN Sampling Protocols for you to use while collecting avian data.
Select the sampling method you are interested from the list below:
Species Checklist
Species checklists are a simple way to record both incidental and comprehensive observations of bird species observed on your installation that don’t fit a traditionally structured survey (e.g., point counts, line transects, etc.).
The DoD AKN Program Team is constantly developing methods and protocols to meet your common (and uncommon!) avian data collection needs, so check back often as we update this list!
Species Checklists
What are Species Checklists?
Species checklists are a simple way to record both incidental and comprehensive observations of bird species observed on your installation that don’t fit a traditionally structured survey (e.g., point counts, line transects, etc.). Like all surveys in the AKN, there is some minimum information required per event (i.e., per observation):
- The observation must be of a living bird
- The observation should include the date (Month/Day/Year)
- The observation needs to be associated with a sampling unit (see below)
- The observation includes the name of the observer
- The observation has a specified start and end time on the date the data were collected
Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia), Fort Cavazos, TX,
Photo Credit: Paul Block
We encourage you to collect all the above information for all species checklists you collect on your installations. For historical records, if any of the above information is missing from your checklists, see the Historic Data section below for how to handle this in the AKN.
Select from the links below your topic of interest:
How do I set up my sampling units for species checklists?
Which Sampling Protocol should I use for my checklist data?
What if I have historic data, but I don’t know what date the observations were made?
What if I don’t know who collected the data?
What if I didn’t record start and end times?
What if I don’t record all species (these are incidental data only)?
How do I set up my sampling units for species checklists?
In order to enter any observation data into the AKN, you must first have set up Sampling Units.
For simple checklists that can occur anywhere on your installation, follow the steps below:
- In Project Leader, select the tab “Sampling Units” and hit enter.
- Add a new Study Area:
- Under “Add Sampling Units under the highlighted feature…” select the online form button.
- Under “Add One,” select the box “Study Area” and hit enter.
- You may wish to name this new Study Area as “Checklist”.
- Note: your Study Area short and long name can be the same.
- Hit save (no need to add geometry yet).
- Add an Area Search Plot Sampling Unit to your new Study Area:
- Highlight your new Study Area on the left. Select the online form (as you did in Step 2).
- Under “Add One,” select the box “Area Search Plot”.
- Note: to ensure you are adding the Area Search Plot under your newly created Study Area, check at the top of the page where it says “As part of”; it should read your new Study Area short and long name, as you entered it in Step 2 (e.g., Checklist(CHECKLIST)).
- Name your new Sampling Unit using the suggested naming convention “YOURINSTALLATION_SPCH” (You may have to abbreviate your installation name in the short name to keep it less than 12 characters).
- Hit save (you can add geometry now or you can follow Step 4 to add geometry via shapefile).
- Add geometry to your new Area Search Plot Sampling Unit:
- Highlight your new Area Search Plot in the left. Under “Update Sampling Unit geometry” select “SHP File.” Follow the prompts on the next screen to upload a shapefile of your installation.
Which Sampling Protocol should I use for my checklist data?
- If you’d like to record a species list only (without a count), use the AKN Sampling Protocol “SPCH_NoCount_Location”
- If you’d like to record the number of individuals observed along with your checklist, use the protocol “SPCH_Location”
- Adding Coordinates: Both protocols have optional fields where you can record the exact Latitude/Longitude coordinates of your observation, in case this is important for your monitoring. Leave these fields blank otherwise.
Example Datasheet
What if I have historic data, but I don’t know what date the observations were made?
If you don’t know the date the checklist occurred, first make sure that the data otherwise has value to you. If the data are important for your ongoing monitoring efforts, your installations species list, etc. but you don’t know when they were collected, you can use the date ‘1/1/1900’, and make a note in the notes field that the date was unknown.
What if I don’t know who collected the data?
If you don’t have an observer listed for the data (or there are too many to enter into your project), you add a researcher named “Unknown, Unknown” to your project and use this as the researcher name for the checklist.
In Project Leader, under “Project Definition”:
- Go to “Researcher Access” and select your Project.
- You’ll see a list of researchers currently in your project. Click on ‘add one’ and find the Researcher “Unknown, Unknown” in the list. Add this researcher to your project.
What if I didn’t record start and end times?
If you don’t have times recorded with your historic observations, you can enter the time “0:00” for both start and end time. In the future, please note the start and end time for your checklists and enter these times.
What if I don’t record all species (these are incidental data only)?
You can use the species checklists for incidental observations, but it is best practice to keep complete checklists whenever possible. This will help you create a comprehensive species list in your AKN project and will make querying a species list easier for future reporting needs.