by Mark Holmgren
The purpose of the BBS is to bring together information on all breeding birds in all parts of the county to facilitate explorations of the relationships of birds to land. These explorations can inform conservation, bird watching, research, environmental planning, and education at several levels. After 5 years of gathering historic and recent breeding records the database holds 9352 records of 188 species known to breed in Santa Barbara County. Many decisions can now be made species by species. For example, we can now determine the breeding period of each of the common species rather than assuming a broad breeding period for all breeding species combined.
Another strength of the BBS is the 1500 photos of breeding that provide evidence and examples of where and how breeding takes place.
View the mapped records, play with the database, and you can submit breeding records at the SB Audubon website: https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/santa-barbara-county-breeding-bird-study/.
We’re grateful for our collaboration with SB Audubon’s co-sponsor in this project — UCSB’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration.
We are looking for someone to assume the task of editing bird records submitted in 2021.
