Incidental and long-distance bird observations in the Shoshone, Toiyabe, Toquima, and Monitor ranges, Nevada: 3rd edition

These data document detections of birds in canyons throughout four mountain ranges in the central Great Basin (Lander, Nye, and Eureka counties, Nevada): the Shoshone Mountains, Toiyabe Range, Toquima Range, and Monitor Range. A small number of detections were made in the valleys adjacent to these mountain ranges and in the Desatoya Range. Data were collected during the breeding season from 2002 through 2015 and 2018 through 2022. These data complement those in Fleishman 2019 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2011-0002-4), which included detections of breeding birds during fixed-radius point counts within 100 meters of the observer. The data in this data publication allow more-complete documentation of the composition and distribution of the local and regional avifauna than would be possible with the fixed-radius point-count data alone. Some birds documented in these data were detected during fixed-radius point counts but were outside the radius of the sample point (e.g., > 100 meters from the observer) or flying over the point rather than apparently using resources within the point. Others were detected opportunistically while traveling to sampling locations or at other times. The detections also include juveniles, which are not included in published analyses. Data include species detected, date of detection, and, in most cases, method of detection and either coordinates or an approximate location.
These data were collected in the course of sampling to examine relations between occupancy and abundance of birds and topography, vegetation, land use, and fire. Data also were collected to investigate baseline variation in occupancy and abundance of birds in space and time and to compare distributions of birds and butterflies in space and time. Knowledge of baseline variation informs assessment of possible effects of environmental change, whether natural or anthropogenic. These data complement those in Fleishman 2019 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2011-0002-4), which had strict criteria or standards with respect to, for example, sampling methods, bird behavior, location, and age class. The data in this file are reliable, but do not meet those strict criteria. The data are useful for documenting species composition and distribution across space and time. Some species included in these data are not represented in the data from the fixed-radius point counts.
There are multiple reasons these data are considered incidental or long distance (hence included in this file rather than Fleishman 2019 [https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2011-0002-4]) and we provide a few of those reasons. A bird was detected during a fixed-radius point count but observer did not record distance from the point center (thus it is unclear whether the detection was within 100 meters of the observer, which is a criterion for many analyses); detected during point counts but at > 100 meters from the point center (the limit for inclusion in many analyses); not detected during point counts (e.g., bird was observed while traveling between sampling locations or in the afternoon or evening rather than during morning point-counts); juvenile bird rather than adult (most analyses are restricted to adults assumed to be breeding in the vicinity). Various measurements of vegetation at or near point-count locations, which may be useful for exploring associations with presence, are available in Fleishman 2015 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0007-2). There are two previous editions of this data publication. These editions were published on 11/18/2013 and 05/13/2015. This third edition, published with some minor metadata edts on 04/26/2019, adds another year of data and further metadata improvements. This third edition was also updated on 01/08/2020 to include data from the 2019 breeding season and a small number of records from previous years that inadvertently were omitted. On 08/09/2022 data from the 2020-2022 breeding season were also included, along with a few additional metadata edits and a few corrections/updates to species names.