This project continues progressive work on the development maintenance and dissemination of the avian conservation assessment database acad and the landbird population estimates database PED

Both are critical tools developed by partners in flight for informing and coordinating conservation of birds across north america that have served as the cornerstone of numerous important bird conservation reports plans and priority lists including the USFWS birds of conservation concern and state of the birds reports among others. The acad contains the latest most comprehensive data on the biological vulnerability of all regularly occurring north american birds over 1600 species including assessments of population size trends threats distribution and area importance which are all evaluated through a standardized scientific peer reviewed process. The acad contains complex biological data that are distilled into easy to interpret 1 to 5 scores for each factor which are combined in various ways to produce a robust conservation assessment for every species at both regional and continental scales. Regular updating and maintenance of the acad is critical to ensuring the database reflects the latest available data and current state of knowledge for each species and can meet the diverse needs of the avian conservation community on demand. The PED contains population estimates for landbirds at subcontinental scales including for countries states provinces bird conservation regions bcrs and BCR X state or province polygons and is used to inform efforts such as state wildlife action plans and permits for incidental take. The PED is linked directly to the USFWS rapid avian inventory locator rail tool on the avian knowledge network AKN website. Acad recently underwent a major overhaul and expansion and the PED now requires a similar overhaul to bring IT up to date. The current request for funding will help to continue updating improving and expanding both databases by 1 analyzing and incorporating new data on population estimates relative abundance species distribution models climate vulnerability and other parameters as well as 2 publishing the updated acad assessment methodology and results in the peer reviewed scientific literature 3 disseminating information on acad and PED to the avian conservation community 4 working with partners to fully incorporate the caribbean avifauna and regions into acad 5 update species taxonomy and BCR boundaries used in the acad and 6 maintain and update the acad and PED websites and apis among other tasks. The deliverables will include a final report detailing progress on all objectives and activities as well as draft versions of the updated acad and PED and their respective user manuals. These updates and improvements support the mission and operations of USFWS and other agencies by providing coordinated scientific guidance on the conservation needs of all north american birds at multiple scales across their full annual cycle.