U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

THE HISTORY OF NORTH

AMERICAN WATERFOWL SURVEYS

50 Years & Still Counting

J. Lynch Family 

USFWS 

Julie St. Louis/USFWS 

The North American Waterfowl 

Population Program represents a 50-year 

legacy of standardized cooperative 

surveys performed by the U. S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife 

Service, state and provincial biologists, 

and non-governmental cooperators. 

The survey program being celebrated 

in 2005 is believed to be the most 

extensive, comprehensive, long-term 

annual wildlife survey effort anywhere. 

Each spring, teams of FWS pilot-biologists and observers take to the skies to 

survey the North American breeding 

grounds extending from the Canadian 

Maritimes west to the Pacific, and 

from the mid-U.S. north to the Arctic 

Ocean. Flying more than 80,000 miles 

a year at altitudes of about 150 feet 

along pre-determined quarter-mile 

wide transects they count waterfowl 

and record data on the quantity and 

quality of wetlands habitat. Survey 

crews on the ground checking portions 

of the aerial transects enable researchers 

to correct the aerial survey information 

for waterfowl present but not seen 

by air. Ground crews in Canada, led 

by CWS, also provide data on pond 

numbers and other habitat 

information important 

to determining

the potential 

for the 

landscape

to produce 

waterfowl 

during each

breeding season. 

A number of additional surveys provide 

data on other aspects of the waterfowl 

population. They include mid-winter 

surveys extending into Mexico, special

surveys for certain species and populations, satellite imagery, hunter participation and harvest surveys, and 

banding programs. Together the data 

they supply provide the basic information necessary for the management of 

North American waterfowl, including 

the setting of annual hunting seasons. 

The Crisis 

By the early 1900s, habitat loss from 

agriculture and logging, overharvest, 

recurring drought on the breeding 

grounds, and public apathy had taken 

their toll. Paramount was the realization that well-intentioned state regulations were inadequate for preserving 

and managing a resource that heeded 

no political boundary in its annual

migrations. 

Federal Legal Protections 

After nearly a decade of crusading by 

conservationists, their allies, and an 

increasingly enlightened public, the 

Migratory Bird Act of 1913 was signed 

into law by President William Howard 

Taft on March 4, 1913. It empowered 

the Secretary of Agriculture to set the 

dates for hunting designated migratory game birds, “having due regard 

to the zones of temperature, breeding 

habits, and times and line of migratory 

flight” of such birds. Clearly, information 

would have to be gathered to fulfill 

these considerations. 

Erwin and Peggy Bauer/USFWS 
The MBA was not well received by all: 

states-righters, market hunters, some 

sportsmen, and even a few legislators 

who supported the intent of the Act 

thought it unconstitutional. To provide 

an indisputable foundation for such a 

law, a treaty was drafted by the United 

States and Canada for the protection 

of certain migratory birds shared by 

the two nations. It was signed on 

August 16, 1916, with Great Britain 

acting on Canada’s behalf. The 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the U.S. 

enabling legislation, was signed into 

law on July 3, 1918. The Canadian 

Migratory Birds Convention Act had 

been signed on August 27, 1917. The 

U.S.-Canada migratory bird treaty set 

the stage for similar agreements with 

Mexico (1936), Japan (1972), and the 

former Soviet Union (1976). 

The MBTA itself was signed just in 

time. By the mid-1920s, Dr. Edward W. 

Nelson, Chief of the U.S. Bureau of 

Biological Survey, forerunner to FWS, 

wrote, “The danger to the perpetualism of the stock of wildfowl is so great 

and so imminent ... that there is the 

most vital need for all conservationists 

and lovers of wildlife to sink petty 

differences of opinion as to the details 

and to unite in constructive work to 

ensure the future of our migratory 

game birds.” The MBTA gave the two 

federal governments the responsibility 

for regulating migratory bird hunting 

in their respective countries. Both were 

charged with establishing regulations 

that afforded ample hunting opportunity and harvest that were not detrimental to bird populations. Thus, one 

of the first challenges biologists faced 

was how to effectively assess migratory bird populations that bred in often 

remote northern areas and wintered in 

distant southern locales. 

The First Aerial Surveys 

In 1931, Frederick C. Lincoln envisioned 

the use of airplanes for conducting 

waterfowl surveys. He convinced the 

U.S. Army to take him and a photographer on a test flight over waterfowl 

wintering on the Potomac River below 

Washington, DC. Lincoln came away 

convinced of the value of airplanes 

and aerial photography in waterfowl 

survey work. 

For the next 20 years, increasingly 

more aerial surveys of waterfowl on 

wintering and staging areas were 

undertaken. These surveys were pieced 

together by arrangements with the 

U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, and the Army, 

occasionally supplemented by chartered aircraft and private pilots. 

Understanding the advantages of aircraft 

for waterfowl purposes, the FWS eventually acquired its own fleet of planes. 

The first, a new Monocoupe for use 

in Alaska, was purchased in 1940. 

Following World War II, the FWS 

acquired surplus military aircraft, while 

military-trained pilots, usually with

prior wildlife or conservation experience, 

were hired as pilot-biologists. The 

types of aircraft used in survey work 

ranged from single-engine planes 

mounted with wheels, floats, or 

skis, to twin-engine amphibians. 

During the late 1940s and early ‘50s, 

survey pioneers experimented with 

spring waterfowl counts on the breeding grounds where paired birds dispersed during nesting and rearing of 

young. Meanwhile, biologists assigned 

to ground surveys gathered data to 

be used in adjusting the aerial survey 

findings. In the spring of 1955, the 

FWS and its cooperators launched the 

first coordinated annual waterfowl 

survey of the North American waterfowl breeding grounds. This survey 

effort and its results have been instrumental in guiding the North American 

waterfowl management program for 

a half-century. 

The Waterfowl Survey Program Today 

Currently there are 12 FWS pilotbiologists and aircraft stationed 

within the four waterfowl flyways 

in the continental United States and 

five pilot-biologists and four planes 

located in Alaska. During the waterfowl 

breeding population surveys each 

spring, aerial crews are supplemented 

by ground survey crews in the prairie 

pothole regions of north-central U.S. and 

south-central Canada. Ground portions 

in Canada are coordinated by CWS and 

provide data on habitat conditions, 

pond numbers and other factors that 

help gage the potential for breeding 

success each year. An additional staff 

of waterfowl biologists and statisticians 

in both countries supports the survey 

program by analyzing and interpreting 

the large quantities of data gathered in 

each survey. 

Today, new tools, including Global 

Positioning System technology, 

make it possible to record the precise 

location of every bird seen by the 

survey teams. Moving map video 

displays show pilot-biologists where 

they are and where they are going, 

and aerial videography helps observers 

count large flocks of birds. 

From the days when survey work 

focused solely on waterfowl, the 

program continues to expand 

to include certain other species of 

migratory birds such as raptors and 

shorebirds. Such information lends 

support to the conservation efforts 

of U.S. and Canadian agencies and 

non-governmental organizations. 

For More Information 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

Division of Migratory Bird Management 

4401 North Fairfax Drive, MS 4107 

Arlington, Virginia 22203

703/358 1714 

http://waterfowlsurveys.fws.gov 

December 2004