Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Minnesota
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

It is difficult to monitor many wildlife species over broad geographic areas, and such monitoring efforts are generally labor intensive and expensive. However, at regional and larger scales, information on species of conservation concern is necessary to make informed management decisions. With funding from the Minnesota Environmental Trust Fund, we are evaluating the usefulness of passive bioacoustic monitoring to assess distribution and abundance of red-headed woodpeckers, and other bird species of conservation concern, to inform conservation by providing an efficient means of monitoring across a broad geographic region.