The Hummingbird Monitoring Network (HMN), founded in 2002 and earning 501(C)(3) nonprofit status by 2004, was initiated because hummingbird conservation had lost its prominence in the competition for ecological urgency, thus population trend data for hummingbirds was lacking. We began as a science-based, project-driven organization dedicated to maintaining hummingbird diversity and abundance throughout the Americas. We are a distinctive nonfit organization which combines collaborative research, community involvement, and training with a view to understanding and appreciating the importance of hummingbirds and their conservation in a continuously evolving world.
“HMN is faithful and motivated to maintaining long-term monitoring sites that represent the region’s hummingbird diversity across each species range; collecting detailed demographic information on hummingbird populations so data trends can be easily detected; encouraging and supporting research projects that promote hummingbird conservation; supporting efforts that preserve and restore hummingbird habitats; educating communities by disseminating information about hummingbirds to land managers, the scientific community, and the general public; and using the gathered information to ultimately improve hummingbird conservation.
“To address the lack of trend and status data, HMN founded a coordinated trend monitoring program, mainly instituting volunteers who trained as citizen scientists. Now, we partner with federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, citizen scientists, and volunteers. It is a systematic banding program with constant effort and robust design protocol, stratified by geographic factors such as elevation, longitude and latitude, and vegetation type. Its sampling and experimental design is based upon the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program, which has been effective for answering questions about population trends in passerines and near-passerines. Capture, banding techniques, and tools have been developed and employed specifically for hummingbirds’ specialized ecology and constrained physiology.
HMN’s program has generated data with large sample sizes and high recapture rates that permit using Capture Mark Recapture models to estimate survivorship and other demographic estimates. It also provides region-specific information pertaining to analyzing the high diversity and abundance of hummingbirds, which areas are important breeding sites, the timing of hummingbird occurrence, and their seasonal movement patterns.
In addition to the monitoring program, HMN has collaborated with further organizations on numerous research projects; developed hummingbird field techniques; helped found Borderlands Restoration L3C, an Arizonian ecological enterprise, to restore landscapes and engage communities along the Mexico-USA border; initiated an after-school employment program for high school students; and developed an internship program for Latin American college students and young professionals to learn hummingbird field techniques.
“HMN is faithful and motivated to maintaining long-term monitoring sites that represent the region’s hummingbird diversity across each species range; collecting detailed demographic information on hummingbird populations so data trends can be easily detected; encouraging and supporting research projects that promote hummingbird conservation; supporting efforts that preserve and restore hummingbird habitats; educating communities by disseminating information about hummingbirds to land managers, the scientific community, and the general public; and using the gathered information to ultimately improve hummingbird conservation.
“To address the lack of trend and status data, HMN founded a coordinated trend monitoring program, mainly instituting volunteers who trained as citizen scientists. Now, we partner with federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, citizen scientists, and volunteers. It is a systematic banding program with constant effort and robust design protocol, stratified by geographic factors such as elevation, longitude and latitude, and vegetation type. Its sampling and experimental design is based upon the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program, which has been effective for answering questions about population trends in passerines and near-passerines. Capture, banding techniques, and tools have been developed and employed specifically for hummingbirds’ specialized ecology and constrained physiology.
HMN’s program has generated data with large sample sizes and high recapture rates that permit using Capture Mark Recapture models to estimate survivorship and other demographic estimates. It also provides region-specific information pertaining to analyzing the high diversity and abundance of hummingbirds, which areas are important breeding sites, the timing of hummingbird occurrence, and their seasonal movement patterns.
In addition to the monitoring program, HMN has collaborated with further organizations on numerous research projects; developed hummingbird field techniques; helped found Borderlands Restoration L3C, an Arizonian ecological enterprise, to restore landscapes and engage communities along the Mexico-USA border; initiated an after-school employment program for high school students; and developed an internship program for Latin American college students and young professionals to learn hummingbird field techniques.