Coastal Uplands Shorebirds

The Florida Shorebird Alliance maintains the logistics and data for Shorebird monitoring for the state of Florida. Transects and standardized protocols were developed and have been applied to the program to enrue that shorebird monitoring is conducted using the standardized and Best Available Methods. The resulting database is available on the Florida Shorebird Database website (https://public.myfwc.com/crossdoi/shorebirds/about.aspx). All data were downloaded on 12/13/2020.

The database is not directly spatial but includes Latitudes and Longitudes that enable creation of spatial data from downloads. Data were input into GIS and through creation of X-Y events and projected from geographic to Albers, maps of nest site locations were created for further analyses. The data were filtered to include only the three species of interest as Indicators of the Coastal Uplands Conservation Asset for the first Iteration of the Florida Report Card on Florida's Conservation Assets.

The Shorebird Indicator will monitor the trends in nesting pairs for three shorebirds: American Oystercatcher, Wilson's Plover, and the Snowy Plover. These species are included in the Imperiled Beach-Nesting Birds (IBNB) Plan for Florida. Indicator metrics for shorebirds are derived from annual reports on breeding pairs by IBNB regions. Data shown in this map reflect nesting site locations and may not directly match metrics because nesting sites may include nesting failures, renesting, etc. The fate of many nests remains unknown despite regular monitoring.

This map shows nest locations for these species in each of the three years. Although each transect is repeatedly monitored throughout the breeding season, the fate of many nests were unknown. Re-nests after failed attempts may not be distinguishable