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This Plan is focused on forests and agroforestry systems located at mid-elevations in Central America and northern South America, which are recognized as critical habitats for several species of migratory birds in steep decline.

This document is a draft avian conservation plan for the Sierra Nevada, produced for California Partners in Flight. The purpose of the draft plan is to summarize and analyze existing information on the status of Sierra bird populations, to identify major land management issues that may be threatening the security of those populations, and to suggest conservation actions to safeguard the populations and the habitats on which they depend.

Covering approximately 1/6 of the state of California, the Sierra Nevadas diverse habitats are enormously important to the birds of California and, indeed, to a large portion of western North Americas Neotropical migratory birds. The best way to protect Sierra bird populations, those that are already seriously jeopardized as well as those that are not, is to proactively safeguard the habitats on which they depend. Although we limit our discussion in this report to the status and conservation of birds, most of our conservation recommendations are habitat-based, and would consequently benefit other jeopardized taxa as well.

The Sagebrush Bird Conservation Plan has been prepared to stimulate and support an active approach to conservation of landbird populations that depend on sagebrush habitats in eastern California. It represents a synthesis of published and unpublished information on birds in the region, the ecology of sagebrush systems, and conservation planning. Recommendations included in this document are intended to guide planning efforts and actions of land managers, expenditures of government and non-government organizations, and stimulate monitoring and research to support the conservation of landbirds.

This Oak Woodland Bird Conservation Plan is a collaborative effort of California Partners in Flight. It has been developed to guide conservation policy and action on behalf of oak woodland habitats and wildlife. The plan has focused on data concerning bird species that are dependent on oak woodlands, but conservation recommendations have broad applicability for all oak woodland habitats and, if implemented, would benefit many oak woodland species.

This document represents the second iteration of the Riparian Bird Conservation Plan. A review of the original focal species list revealed the need to add three new species to better capture the diversity of habitat niches found in California riparian systems and to account for species which are experiencing range reductions in the state. Following the same criteria established in the selection of the original 14 focal species, Spotted Sandpiper, Tree Swallow, and Tricolored Blackbird were added. Also new to this version is a process description for setting population objectives for select focal species using current monitoring data and GIS data layers. In this version, examples from Central Valley Basins are used to estimate current and potential population size.

Developed by California Partners in Flight and PRBO Conservation Science, the Desert Bird Conservation Plan (BCP) is a non-regulatory document intended to educate and assist land managers and researchers interested in improving desert habitat for bird populations. The plan addresses management and conservation issues of the Mojave and Lower Colorado River Valley section of the Sonoran Desert, two desert eco-regions that encompass southeast California, southwest Nevada, western Arizona, and northwest Mexico.  The plan provides an overview of desert ecology, the challenges facing desert ecosystems and its birds, species accounts for 15 desert focal species, desert bird population targets, overall conservation objectives for the Mojave and Colorado deserts, specific recommendations, and guidance for implementing the plan. 

Though the Desert BCP was originally conceived to address desert habitats exclusively in California, interest in a comprehensive, habitat-based desert plan extends beyond California’s borders into Nevada, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The Desert BCP therefore addresses Mojave and Colorado Desert habitats throughout a multistate / transnational region with the goal of complementing and adding to existing bird conservation plans in Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico.

This Coastal Scrub and Chaparral Bird Conservation Plan is a collaborative effort of California Partners in Flight. It has been developed to guide conservation policy and action on behalf of coastal scrub/chaparral habitats and wildlife. The geographic scope of this plan is the distribution of low-elevation shrublands west of the states major mountain axis. The plan has focused on data concerning bird species that are dependent on these habitat types, but conservation recommendations have broad applicability for all coastal scrub and chaparral habitats in California (with the exception of montane chaparral). If implemented, these recommendations would benefit many scrub- and chaparral-dependent species.

The California Coniferous Forest Bird Conservation Plan (Conservation Plan) has been developed to help guide conservation policy and action on behalf of coniferous habitats and associated landbirds throughout California. The Conservation Plan is a synthesis of the current state of knowledge concerning birds in California’s coniferous forests and the problems they face. Recommendations presented here can be used by land managers to support viable populations of birds that depend on these forests for breeding.