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WatchList – Delaware – 1^st Edition

Purpose and Background

Audubon has compiled WatchLists for each state in response to requests from our membership and constituency nationwide. Given limited human and financial resources, Audubon state WatchLists will provide focus for our state education, citizen science and habitat protection initiatives. Audubon's state WatchLists carry no official authority and are not meant to supplant state lists of Threatened, Endangered and Special Concern species–state WatchLists are an additional tool designed to help citizens conserve their local bird populations. In particular, Audubon's WatchLists will help support Partners in Flight (PIF) Bird Conservation Plans.

Audubon state WatchLists are based on the PIF/Colorado Bird Observatory database, updated February 1999. Audubon state WatchLists are based on North American breeding birds, and may not fully prioritize shorebirds, seabirds, nocturnal species, Alaskan and Hawaiian species and others not adequately sampled by Breeding Bird Survey methodology – these birds require further input from state experts. Future editions of Audubon state WatchLists will incorporate data that better reflects the status of these species. 1^st Edition state WatchLists are in review by state experts. We are currently in the process of updating the State Watchlists – we appreciate your patience.

• Who's Reviewing Audubon State WatchLists?
• State List of Threatened, Endangered, and Special Concern Species–(available from 302/653-2882)

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State WatchList Priority Key

High Priority (H) = Total score of 22-35

	Physiographic Areas (see map)
Species	Mid Atlantic Coastal Plain	National WatchList Species?	State Listed Species?
	Area 44
Waterfowl
American Black Duck	H	YES
Rails
Black Rail	H	YES
King Rail	H
Shorebirds
American Oystercatcher	H
Upland Sandpiper	H
Flycatchers and Songbirds
Eastern Wood-Pewee	H
Acadian Flycatcher	H
Brown-headed Nuthatch	H	YES
Sedge Wren	H
Wood Thrush	H	YES
Yellow-throated Vireo	H
Blue-winged Warbler	H
Prairie Warbler	H	YES
Cerulean Warbler	H	YES
Prothonotary Warbler	H	YES
Worm-eating Warbler	H	YES
Kentucky Warbler	H	YES
Louisiana Waterthrush	H
Henslow's Sparrow	H	YES
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow	H	YES
Seaside Sparrow	H	YES

Data Updated: February 1999

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Audience

Audubon membership and constituency including our State offices and chapters, and the general public.

How Audubon Developed State WatchLists

Partners in Flight (PIF) its a now widely accepted Bird Conservation Planning Process, an ambitious effort to conserve the birds of North America, several years ago. As a part of this initiative, Audubon has compiled Audubon WatchLists for states directly from the priority species lists in the PIF Bird Conservation Plans.

PIF's Bird Conservation Plans prioritize all bird species within 'physiographic areas' (essentially regions on a large geographical scale that hold bird and wildlife communities with similar habitat requirements). In this process, PIF has assigned (based on the best available data) priority scores to seven variables critical to defining the health of bird populations. These variables describe extent of species' breeding and wintering distribution, its abundance, whether its populations are increasing, decreasing or stable, the gravity of threats like habitat loss on the breeding and wintering grounds, and the importance of an area to a species. Each variable is scored from 1-5, with 5 indicating the highest conservation priority and 1 indicating the lowest conservation priority, so total scores can range from 7 to 35–the higher the score, the greater the conservation concern. For example, in physiographic area #16 (Upper Great Lakes Plain), a common bird like the House Finch has a total score of 8 while the Henslow's Sparrow has a total score of 30. All bird species in North America are given a priority score. PIF's database of scores is housed at the Colorado Bird Observatory (CBO).

Audubon state WatchLists were developed using the PIF/CBO database and are based on the PIF Species Prioritization Process. Audubon helped fund the maintenance and public dissemination of the CBO data with a goal being to keep the database current. The CBO database was most recently updated in February 1999; therefore, we have based our analyses on this data, proceeding under the assumption that it reflected the most current data from PIF.

Methodology for Developing WatchLists for States

Step 1. Identify the physiographic areas within each state.

Step 2. Query PIF/CBO database for species meeting the following priority thresholds:
(Note: Audubon's Step #2 is the same as Tier 1 in Table 1 in PIF's Bird Conservation Plans)
High Priority (H) = Total score of 22-35

Step 3. Exclude marginal species.

Step 4. Exclude federal Threatened and Endangered Species.

Step 5. Highlight species on National WatchList.

Step 6. Highlight species on state's list of Threatened, Endangered and Special Concern.

Who's Reviewing Audubon State WatchLists?

• Partners in Flight Regional Coordinators
• Partners in Flight State Fish and Wildlife Agency Contacts
• International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies State Directors
• National Audubon Society State Executive Directors
• National Audubon Society Bird Conservation Directors

Questions/Comments

Please send all questions, comments, concerns and edits to Matthew McKown, e-mail: watchlist@audubon.org.

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