ASU Research E-Magazine: Phoenix--A City For The Birds

So you just happen to be a person of discerning taste in the market for a house in Central Arizona. It must be close to schools, shopping, be on or near a golf course, and, oh, yes, you want some Red-naped Sapsuckers in or near your yard.

Given those requirements, particularly the last one, your realtor can tell you that the right location must be somewhere in Tempe, near the Shalimar Country Club. Of course, there are lots of golf courses, schools, and malls in Arizona, but only in the Shalimar area is there a recent record of someone sighting the elusive Red-naped Sapsucker, an interesting native woodpecker.

How does your realtor know this stuff? It is on the Internet, of course.

Since May 1998, Mark Hostetler has supervised a systematic, ongoing bird survey of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. The work helps scientists better understand the nature and dynamics of the city’s ecosystem.

Hostetler is an ASU biologist working for the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER). In 1999, CAP LTER scientists and teams of volunteer amateur bird watchers began regular patrols of 72 areas across the Phoenix metro area. Each area is a carefully chosen 1-kilometer walking route (called “transects” by the scientists). The results of the patrols are placed into an easily searchable database that is publicly accessible over the Internet.

To date, more than 180 species have been sighted.

Hostetler is always in the process of recruiting additional volunteers to add still more observation areas to the project.

“There are a lot of people out there who are avid bird-watchers,” he says. “This is an opportunity for them to do what they love and apply it to the interests of science.”

Once the system is fully developed, Hostetler plans to have hundreds of observers regularly recording bird sightings from virtually every Valley neighborhood and contributing information directly over the internet.

The database is an important resource for CAP LTER scientists, who are studying the relationship between urban landscape structure and the organisms that inhabit it (including humans).

“Urban areas have a huge impact on avian species richness, composition, and abundance,” Hostetler explains. “Through a long-term study on birds in the Phoenix metropolitan area, we hope to obtain information to help planners, citizens, landscape architects, and wildlife researchers to develop strategies to manage urban areas for birds.”

In addition to the bird survey, CAP LTER scientists also plan surveys of other urban animals and plants. A survey of insects and other arthropods is already underway.—James Hathaway