At 05:42 PM 1/11/97 -0800, Michael Brown wrote:

>I'm hoping someone can recommend good sources of info on the status of the
>Olive-sided Flycatcher. I understand their numbers have declined
>substantially, but I'm looking for specifics. How much has the population
>declined, over how many years, and why?

Perhaps Michael has gotten numerous instructive messages on this topic but,
if they are not posted to the group, how are we to know?

It is my understanding that concerns about decline in Olive-sided
Flycatchers comes from the Breeding Bird Survey. Fish and Wildlife Resource
Publication 157, entitled "The Breeding Bird Survey: Its first fifteen
years, 1965-1979", indicates that Breeding Bird Survey routes in the Western
Region experienced a steady decline in Olive-sided Flycatchers. Eye-balling
the data in the graph, it appears that the mean number of birds per route
went from about 2.2 down to about 1.2. The text says "The Olive-sided
Flycatcher appears to be declining sharply in the Western region..."

I don't have any more recent analyses of Breeding Bird Survey data. I have
an unpublished report by Sandy Andelman and Amy Stock entitled "Management,
Research, and Monitoring Priorities for the Conservation of Neotropical
Migratory Birds that breed in Washington State" dated 1993. In their
report, Andelman and Stock list the Olive-sided Flycatcher as a species for
which Breeding Bird Survey data indicate an "unknown trend."
They cite something by Carter and Barker (in press) indicating that
Olive-sided Flycatchers fall into a category of greater than or equal to a
1% annual decline but with considerable statistical uncertainty.

It appears to me that Olive-sided Flycatchers are declining but
characterization of the decline in any precise quantitative way is probably
not possible. I would guess that characterizing the decline in a geographic
context might also be difficult though possibly worth attempting.

In the References section of Andelman and Stock's report, there is a
citation for a report by Carter and Barker that may be the same as cited in
the text as "in press".
It is:

Carter, M. and K. Barker. 1993. An interactive database for setting
conservation priorities for western neotropical migrants. Pp. 120-144 in
Status and management of neotropical migratory birds, D.M. Finch and P.W.
Stangel, eds. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RM-229.

Kelly McAllister