Alta’s bird-monitoring effort began as a collaboration among the Alta Environmental Center, Friends of Alta, Tracy Aviary and Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (BCR) to better understand the birds that live in and migrate through Alta’s high-elevation habitats. Planning began in 2013, with survey locations and methods established in 2014. From 2015–2019, trained staff and community-science volunteers completed five years of standardized bird surveys—creating an important baseline of Alta’s bird populations and habitats.
Although the formal five-year study concluded in 2019, bird monitoring at Alta did not. Monthly observations, community birding programs, feeder counts, nest-box monitoring and rosy-finch research have extended the effort beyond the original study, resulting in more than a decade of bird observations at Alta.
Why Study Birds?
Birds are valuable indicators of ecosystem health because their presence, abundance and distribution are closely connected to vegetation, food sources, climate and habitat conditions. Alta is particularly interesting because its dramatic elevation gradient and variety of alpine and subalpine habitats support a surprisingly diverse bird community.
The original study sought to establish a scientific baseline for Alta’s bird populations that could help researchers and land managers understand which species occur here, how abundant they are and which habitats they use. By pairing bird observations with vegetation surveys, the project also aimed to better understand relationships between birds and their habitat and provide information that could support long-term conservation and management decisions.
Study Methodology
After a preliminary field season in 2014 to establish and mark survey points, develop routes and standardize methods, formal surveys were conducted annually from 2015–2019.
Researchers used the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) protocol—a standardized approach to bird monitoring used across the western United States. Trained staff and community-science volunteers visited established survey points and recorded birds seen and heard, along with vegetation surveys that documented habitat conditions around many of those same locations. The survey conducted in Alta covered ten grids—each measuring 1 square kilometer—with 7–16 evenly spaced survey points located every 250 meters. To establish a formal baseline, we collected data on these key insights:
Relative bird abundance: Number of individual birds recorded
Species diversity: Number of different bird species present
Population density: Number of individuals per hectare for selected species
Vegetation characteristics: Dominant plant species at survey points
Results
82 species of birds documented at Alta—63 of those species were documented during nesting season (June–July)
4,259 individual birds recorded
5 most abundant species were: White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Clark's Nutcracker, Chipping Sparrow and Pine Siskin
Learn more about the results of the study >
Laying the Foundation
The five-year study created something that has lasted beyond the original project: a foundation for long-term bird monitoring and community science at Alta.
Since the original surveys began, Tracy Aviary and its partners have continued documenting birds year-round through monthly surveys with the public—Birding on Skis and Birding Hikes—along with regular counts at the Town of Alta feeder station. Forty nest boxes were also installed and monitored from 2018–2023.
Alta has additionally served as a site for collaborative research on Black Rosy-Finches, including banding and tracking work with Tracy Aviary, Sageland Collaborative, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and other partners.
Together, these projects have transformed a five-year baseline study into more than a decade of observations of Alta’s birds across seasons. While the original study did not ultimately result in the formal publication initially envisioned, its data remain available through public databases and continue to contribute to a broader understanding of birds in Alta and the Intermountain West.
Learn More & Get Involved
You don’t need to be a professional ornithologist to get involved in Alta's birding community.
Join expert birders from Tracy Avairy on our year-round bird surveys of Alta—Birding on Skis in winter and guided Birding Hikes during summer
View and contribute to the Alta Environmental Center's monthly findings on eBird >
The original study may be complete, but the story it began is still being written. Every season of observations adds another piece to the picture of how birds use Alta—and how this high-elevation ecosystem is changing over time.