A preliminary look at bird counts from Mississippi and Louisiana

By Paul Green, Director of Citizen Science, National Audubon

March 9, 2006

The hurricane season of 2005 saw five landfalling major hurricanes—Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Florida and Louisiana were each struck twice by major hurricanes; Mississippi and Texas were each struck once. A 30-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused flooding that destroyed most structures on the Mississippi coastline. Inundation with salt water and high winds have caused much damage to forests and other vegetation.

Focusing on Mississippi and Louisiana, first of all we notice the human side of the GBBC. The number of checklists submitted from Mississippi was down by 40 percent, from 2,390 to 1,423, against an overall increase of 17 percent for the year. Louisiana showed a 15 percent increase from 417 to 478. Mississippi turned in 11 fewer species (166), Louisiana 6 fewer species (176) when compared with 2005. The number of individual birds reported from those checklists was down in Mississippi by 69 percent and up in Louisiana by 66 percent. The distribution of those checklists showed little difference between years. Checklists from New Orleans dropped by only 3, from 15 to 12.

Making much sense of changes between years in terms of the birds reported is difficult. The best can we can do is to describe the greatest changes as we look for input from the region. The numbers below indicate the number of checklists reporting the species, followed by the number of individual birds reported. Adjusting figures to a 2005 standard, counts of the following species increased in Louisiana: Chipping Sparrows (114/775 to 158/3309), Double-crested Cormorant (69/1047 to 63/4667), Snow Goose (15/8372 to 16/24,918), American Coot (16/1013 to 29/2798). Lesser Scaup (8/68 to 15/1140), and American White Pelican (20/213 to 18/1081). Birds in decline included American Robin (275/6400 to 93/1455), Cedar Waxwing (104/2724 to 39/987), and Greater White-fronted Goose (10/1113 to 2/57).

In Mississippi, adjusted figures reveal the following gains and losses. Species with higher counts included Chipping Sparrow (305/1904 to 747/10,090) and Brown-headed Cowbird (281/5301 to 376/13,846). Those with a drop in counts included Red-winged Blackbird (545/62,207 to 641/16,112), American Robin (943/9588 to 492/8082), American Crow (611/109,710 to 551/5425), Double-crested Cormorant (88/24,480 to 94/3003) and Cedar Waxwing 197/5429 to 107/1585).

Given the decrease in checklists in Mississippi in 2005, it is difficult to read much into these figures. Both states saw lower numbers of fruit-eating species (American Robin, Cedar Waxwing). Reports indicate that there is fruit to be eaten and there are fewer birds to eat it: they could simply have remained further north due to record high temperatures across the lower 48. Louisiana saw an increase in waterbirds that seems to be an anomoly caused by increased observer effort. Why the dramatic increase in Chipping Sparrows in both states? We're not sure. It will be interesting to see what next year’s numbers show.