DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.28832495.v1
title: Mountain Birdwatch Point Count Data Select Species 2019 to 2024

description: Overview: This dataset contains point count data for 9 species of birds and Red Squirrel as monitored from 2019 through 2024 through the Mountain Birdwatch Community Science Program. Each year, volunteers adopt one or more routes located on hiking trails or old logging roads to survey during the month of June (rarely, early July). These routes are located within the Northeast United States (New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine) and predominantly located in the spruce-fir forest ecosystem, or less commonly on the ecotone of the spruce-fir and hardwoods. Each route consists of 3-6 fixed sampling locations where observers conduct four 5-minute unlimited distance point counts over 20 minuets (i.e., there is no pause between counts). These four 5-minute point counts are referred to as point count periods 1-4. The vast majority of detections are made by ear. Observers count each detected bird or Red Squirrel only once during a 5-minute point count, and they record each individual into one of two distance categories based on the initial detection distance within each 5-minute count. The two distance categories are &lt;=50 meters of the observer, and &gt;50 meters from the observer. This particular file is a portion of the larger Mountain Birdwatch dataset, which consists of monitoring from 2010 onwards for 11 species in total, and is associated with a manuscript submitted for publication. Each row contains the count and other data associated with the point counts conducted for one species at one location in one year. Missing data (e.g., no survey was conducted or those data were not collected by the observer) are recorded as "NA" within the dataset. The data fields within this file are as follows:Species: Common English names of the monitored species.Route: The names of 138 routes.RouteID: A numerical representation of the Route field.SamplingStation: The name of a sampling location on a route (typically 1-6). Sampling locations are typically (and no less than) 250 meters straight-line distance apart. However, occasionally it has been necessary to create new sampling locations (e.g., "7" or "3A") along a route to replace locations that are no longer safely accessible (e.g., when a hiking trail has been rerouted due to unsafe conditions [e.g., landslide]). YearCollected: The year the data were collected. For this file, those years are 2019 through 2024.CountL50PCP1: The number of individuals of that species detected within 50 m of the observer during point count period 1.CountL50PCP2: The number of individuals of that species detected within 50 m of the observer during point count period 2.CountL50PCP3: The number of individuals of that species detected within 50 m of the observer during point count period 3.CountL50PCP4: The number of individuals of that species detected within 50 m of the observer during point count period 4.CountG50PCP1: The number of individuals of that species detected beyond 50 m of the observer during point count period 1.CountG50PCP2: The number of individuals of that species detected beyond 50 m of the observer during point count period 2.CountG50PCP3: The number of individuals of that species detected beyond 50 m of the observer during point count period 3.CountG50PCP4: The number of individuals of that species detected beyond 50 m of the observer during point count period 4.CountAllDPCP1: The total number of unique individuals of that species detected within any distance of the observer during point count period 1.CountAllDPCP2: The total number of unique individuals of that species detected within any distance of the observer during point count period 2.CountAllDPCP3: The total number of unique individuals of that species detected within any distance of the observer during point count period 3.CountAllDPCP4: The total number of unique individuals of that species detected within any distance of the observer during point count period 4.Latitude: Decimal degrees North latitude of that sampling station.Longitude: Decimal degrees West longitude of that sampling station.MonthCollected and DayCollected: Month (1=January....12=December) and day (1-31), respectively, of the year when surveys were collected at that sampling station.JuneDay: An easy way to record survey date within a year. Mountain Birdwatch surveys begin on no earlier than June 1 each year. JuneDay=1 represents June 1st of any year, while JuneDay=31 represents July 1st, and so on.Elevation: USGS elevation for that location in meters.AmbientNoise: First, from 2019 to 2024 observers estimated the intensity of ambient noise levels using a subjective ordinal scale from 1 (“virtually no ambient noise”) to 10 (“very loud ambient noise levels that likely prevent hearing animal vocalizations if present”). Observers assigned a single score representing the mean ambient noise level over the full 20-minute survey period, as dominant noise sources (e.g., wind and flowing water) tend to be continuous rather than episodic (JMH, personal observation). We did not provide illustrative descriptions for each value on the rating scale (e.g., 1 = “quiet library” and 2 = “quiet coffee house”) to avoid introducing further subjectivity. Given the geographically dispersed annual network of ~80 community scientists, in-person calibration using standardized sound levels was not feasible.CTSR1: Point count start time of point count period 1 (i.., the first 5-minute point count conducted at a sampling location). Typically, observers start their first point count of the day (at their first sampling location along their route) 45-minutes before sunrise. Observers record the time (e.g., 04:30 am) on their datasheets. Observers recorded their point count start time on their datasheets, which we converted to minutes before (negative values) or after (positive values) local sunrise time using the suncalc page version 0.5.2 (Thieurmel and Elmarhraoui 2025) in R.CTSR2: Point count start time of point count period 2 (i.., the second 5-minute point count conducted at a sampling location).CTSR3: Point count start time of point count period 3 (i.., the third 5-minute point count conducted at a sampling location).CTSR4: Point count start time of point count period 4 (i.., the fourth 5-minute point count conducted at a sampling location).ObserverID: a numeric and anonymous representation of volunteer's identity.SoundVolume: in a single year (2019), observers used their smartphones to measure the mean soundscape volume (in <i>A</i>-weighted decibels [dBA]) over a 30-second period during the third five-minute point count at each sampling station. We limited the recording duration to 30 seconds to avoid interfering with bird detections. If an observer accidentally jostled the phone (e.g., against a clipboard), they restarted the measurement to prevent artificially high volume readings. All observers used the same sound meter app—either "db Meter" (Google Play Store) or "Decibel" (Apple Store) (Polyanskiy 2019; http://dbmeterpro.com/). We did not require observers to record their smartphone make, model, OS version, or microphone specifications.