• We use standard ten minute, unlimited radius point counts to conduct our breeding bird surveys. Counts are conducted by trained observers.
• Our monitoring program is more regionally intensive than the national Breeding Bird Survey (1200 points versus less than 100 routes in the forested region of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin).
• Our points are placed in specific habitats so we can link population trends and bird occurrence to habitat.This allows us to get a better picture of population trends in specific forest areas.
• We have taken the lead in developing a standard method for monitoring songbird populations in the Great Lakes region. With standard methods, results from the various monitoring programs can be combined and compared.
• Breeding bird monitoring programs have been established for the Apostle Islands, Nicolet National Forest, Hiawatha National Forest, Ontario, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Hanowski, JM, Niemi GJ. 1995. Experimental design considerations for establishing an off-road, habitat specific bird monitoring program using point counts. Pages 145-150 in Monitoring bird populations by point counts. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-149. Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, CA.