Pacific Brown Pelican Survey

Important changes due to COVID-19: May 9, 2020 Brown Pelican Surveys are currently moving forward under the following guidelines:

• Only conduct surveys on your own or with members of your immediate household.  
• Only volunteers from the local area on the coast will be recruited (all volunteers from the Willamette Valley and elsewhere from the interior are being asked to not assist at this time)
• If members of the public are encountered during the survey, all social distancing policies will be adhered (remain at least 6 feet away, bring sanitizer/disinfectant with you and clean your hands before and after your survey)
• We will not actively recruit new volunteers at this point and will mostly rely on experienced volunteers. We will not be promoting the project or posting social media of monitoring sessions. Unlike in previous years we will not have volunteers do any formal outreach to the public until the situation improves.
• Any sites that are currently closed (state parks) will not be visited for surveys

These plans may change. Please contact Joe Liebezeit at jliebezeit@birdallianceoregon.org with questions.

Contribute to science by helping us survey Brown Pelicans. We have eighteen sites along Oregon’s Coast from Chetco Point on the south coast to to Fort Steven’s on the north coast. Learn more about the Pacific Brown Pelican project

Although the Brown Pelican was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2009, new threats are challenging this bird’s survival. In recent years this species has suffered huge nest failures on its breeding grounds off southern and Baja California, which is thought to be tied to declines in their main food source, forage fish (primarily anchovies).

The goal of these surveys is to help us define the distribution and abundance of Brown Pelicans and track shifts in population structure to help us better protect this majestic bird.

We ask volunteers to conduct the count for at least 1 hour during a 4-hour window ending at civil twilight (about 9 p.m.) on May 9.

To learn more about this opportunity and learn how to survey the Pacific Brown Pelicans, visit the project’s protocol.

Partners: Bird Alliance of Oregon California, Bird Alliance of Oregon Washington, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Conservación de islas