New York State Breeding Bird Atlas

[oneidalaker]

Check out the attached Figures. There has been a dramatic decline of active Purple Martin colonies in New York State from the 1980 to 1985 period to the 2000 to 2004 period. Since a purple martin colony is pretty hard to miss (especially if the surveyors returned to the known 1980 to 1985 active sites) I think that this decline is real.

[TreeGreenwood]

The USGS Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) shows a mixed bag in NY; significant decreases in east and upper but a significant increase in the far western part of the state. See:

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm03/ ... r06110.htm

[Martin man RI]

Thanks for the information!
The same is true for all of New England i think if it were not for the PMCA
and there study on larger compartments they would have been in worst
shape people that have them now in the larger units seem to be the one's
that have been able to hold on to there sites i think alot of the sites that are
gone today were sites that had smaller units and the birds may have just
moved on as there sites grew old i feel in the northern states alot has to
do with lack of interest on the part of the younger generation the birds are
not doing well in New England and alot of extra large units are needed
to reverse the decline most of the sites that sit empty today are the old
trio unit sites. Best of luck to you all! Ray in RI