Citizen science is on the rise. Aided by the internet, the popularity and scope of citizen science appears almost 30 limitless. For citizens the motivation is to contribute to "real" science, public information and conservation. For 3 1 scientists, citizen science offers a way to collect information that would otherwise not be affordable. The 32 longest running and largest of these citizen science programs are broad-scale bird monitoring projects. There 33 are two basic types of protocols possible: a) cross-sectional schemes such as Atlases-collections of surveys of 34 many species contributed by volunteers over a set period of time, and b) longitudinal schemes such as 35 Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS)-ongoing stratified monitoring of sites that require more coordination. We review 36 recent applications of these citizen science programs to determine their influence in the scientific literature. 37 We use return-on-investment thinking to identify the minimum investment needed for different citizen science 38 programs, and the point at which investing more in citizen science programs has diminishing benefits. Atlas and 39 BBS datasets are used to achieve different objectives, with more knowledge-focused applications for Atlases 40 compared with more management applications for BBS. Estimates of volunteer investment in these datasets 41 show that compared to cross-sectional schemes, longitudinal schemes are more cost-effective, with increased 42 BBS investment correlated with more applications, which have higher impact in the scientific literature, as 43 measured by citation rates. This is most likely because BBS focus on measuring change, allowing the impact of 44 management and policy to be quantified. To ensure both types of data are used to their full potential we 45 recommend the following: elements of BBS protocols (fixed sites, long-term monitoring) are incorporated into 46 Atlases; regional coordinators are in place to maintain data quality; communication between researchers and 47 the organisations coordinating volunteer monitoring is enhanced, with monitoring targeted to meet specific 48 needs and objectives; application of data to under-explored objectives is encouraged, and data are made freely 49 and easily accessible. 50 51 impossible to collect because of limitations in time and resources (Dickinson et al. 2010). The field of 57 ornithology has the longest history of citizen science (Greenwood 2007), with thousands of amateur and 58 professional ornithologists worldwide. The National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in the United 59 States, started in 1900, is the longest-running citizen science project with over 110 years of data collected so 60 far. Advances in technology have led to new citizen science internet applications that use crowd-sourcing to 61 invite large numbers of the public to monitor biodiversity over broad geographic regions, and allow volunteers 62 to access and interpret the data they collect (Howe 2006).This has resulted in datasets that are often very large 63 and readily ac...

The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 is the third in a series of action plans that have been produced at the start of each decade. The book analyses the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status of all the species and subspecies of Australia's birds, including those of the offshore territories. For each bird the size and trend in their population and distribution has been analysed using the latest iteration of IUCN Red List Criteria to determine their risk of extinction. The book also provides an account of all those species and subspecies that are or are likely to be extinct. The result is the most authoritative account yet of the status of Australia's birds. In this completely revised edition each account covers not only the 2010 status but provides a retrospective assessment of the status in 1990 and 2000 based on current knowledge, taxonomic revisions and changes to the IUCN criteria, and then reasons why the status of some taxa has changed over the last two decades. Maps have been created specifically for the Action Plan based on vetted data drawn from the records of Birds Australia, its members and its partners in many government departments. This is not a book of lost causes. It is a call for action to keep the extraordinary biodiversity we have inherited and pass the legacy to our children. 2012 Whitley Award Commendation for Zoological Resource.

Long-term systematic population monitoring data sets are rare but are essential in identifying changes in species abundance. In contrast, community groups and natural history organizations have collected many species lists. These represent a large, untapped source of information on changes in abundance but are generally considered of little value. The major problem with using species lists to detect population changes is that the amount of effort used to obtain the list is often uncontrolled and usually unknown. It has been suggested that using the number of species on the list, the "list length," can be a measure of effort. This paper significantly extends the utility of Franklin's approach using Bayesian logistic regression. We demonstrate the value of List Length Analysis to model changes in species prevalence (i.e., the proportion of lists on which the species occurs) using bird lists collected by a local bird club over 40 years around Brisbane, southeast Queensland, Australia. We estimate the magnitude and certainty of change for 269 bird species and calculate the probabilities that there have been declines and increases of given magnitudes. List Length Analysis confirmed suspected species declines and increases. This method is an important complement to systematically designed intensive monitoring schemes and provides a means of utilizing data that may otherwise be deemed useless. The results of List Length Analysis can be used for targeting species of conservation concern for listing purposes or for more intensive monitoring. While Bayesian methods are not essential for List Length Analysis, they can offer more flexibility in interrogating the data and are able to provide a range of parameters that are easy to interpret and can facilitate conservation listing and prioritization.

Summary1. Expert knowledge is used routinely to inform listing decisions under the IUCN Red List criteria. Differences in opinion arise between experts in the presence of epistemic uncertainty, as a result of different interpretations of incomplete information and differences in individual beliefs, values and experiences. Structured expert elicitation aims to anticipate and account for such differences to increase the accuracy of final estimates. 2. A diverse panel of 16 experts independently evaluated up to 125 parameters per taxon to assess the IUCN Red List category of extinction risk for nine Australian bird taxa. Each panellist was provided with the same baseline data. Additional judgments and advice were sought from taxon specialists outside the panel. One question set elicited lowest and highest plausible estimates, best estimates and probabilities that the true values were contained within the upper and lower bounds. A second question set elicited yes ⁄ no answers and a degree of credibility in the answer provided. 3. Once initial estimates were obtained, all panellists were shown each others' values. They discussed differences and reassessed their original values. Most communication was carried out by email. 4. The process took nearly 6 months overall to complete, and required an average of 1 h and up to 13 h per taxon for a panellist to complete the initial assessment. 5. Panellists were mostly in agreement with one another about IUCN categorisations for each taxon. Where they differed, there was some evidence of convergence in the second round of assessments, although there was persistent non-overlap for about 2% of estimates. The method exposed evidence of common subjective biases including overconfidence, anchoring to available data, definitional ambiguity and the conceptual difficulty of estimating percentages rather than natural numbers. 6. This study demonstrates the value of structured elicitation techniques to identify and to reduce potential sources of bias and error among experts. The formal nature of the process meant that the consensus position reached carried greater weight in subsequent deliberations on status. The structured process is worthwhile for high profile or contentious taxa, but may be too time intensive for less divisive cases.

Aim To identify the relationships between volunteer bird survey effort and motivations in order to prioritize investment in future surveying activities.Location South-west Western Australia, a global biodiversity hotspot. MethodsWe developed nine hypotheses for volunteer motivations to predict the probability of a bird survey being undertaken anywhere in the landscape using data from the New Atlas of Australian Birds. We then established three goals for surveying in the study region: (1) equal representation of surveys across the landscape, (2) surveys stratified by habitat type and (3) representation of surveys in protected areas. We developed a function to estimate the benefit of investing in professional surveys, given the probability of a volunteer survey taking place and the survey goal, and calculated the cost of meeting a surveying goal with and without accounting for the probability of cells not being surveyed by volunteers.Results A model combining the location of protected areas, location of previous records of threatened species and habitat diversity was the strongest predictor of the probability of a volunteer bird survey being conducted. Each surveying goal resulted in different areas being prioritized for future surveying, indicating the importance of setting clear objectives before undertaking broadscale monitoring or surveying activities. If our primary goal is stratified protected area representation in surveys, there are huge cost savings if only protected areas with a 70% predicted probability of not being surveyed by volunteers are selected for professional surveys.Main conclusions Professional sampling in survey gaps is required to reduce bias in volunteer-collected datasets. Using models of volunteer behaviour, we can identify areas unlikely to be surveyed. If these areas are important for the project objective, then we can either provide incentives for volunteers or carry out professional surveying. These analyses are best carried out before data collection commences.

We introduce a dataset of biological, ecological, conservation and legal information for every species and subspecies of Australian bird, 2056 taxa or populations in total. Version 1 contains 230 fields grouped under the following headings: Taxonomy & nomenclature, Phylogeny, Australian population status, Conservation status, Legal status, Distribution, Morphology, Habitat, Food, Behaviour, Breeding, Mobility and Climate metrics. It is envisaged that the dataset will be updated periodically with new data for existing fields and the addition of new fields. The dataset has already had, and will continue to have applications in Australian and international ornithology, especially those that require standard information for a large number of taxa.

Birds have long fascinated scientists and travellers, so their distribution and abundance through time have been better documented than those of other organisms. Many bird species are known to have gone extinct, but information on subspecies extinctions has never been synthesised comprehensively. We reviewed the timing, spatial patterns, trends and causes of avian extinctions on a global scale, identifying 279 ultrataxa (141 monotypic species and 138 subspecies of polytypic species) that have gone extinct since 1500. Species extinctions peaked in the early 20th century, then fell until the mid 20th century, and have subsequently accelerated. However, extinctions of ultrataxa peaked in the second half of the 20th century. This trend reflects a consistent decline in the rate of extinctions on islands since the beginning of the 20th century, but an acceleration in the extinction rate on continents. Most losses (78.7% of species and 63.0% of subspecies) occurred on oceanic islands. Geographic foci of extinctions include the Hawaiian Islands (36 taxa), mainland Australia and islands (29 taxa), the Mascarene Islands (27 taxa), New Zealand (22 taxa) and French Polynesia (19 taxa). The major proximate drivers of extinction for both species and subspecies are invasive alien species (58.2% and 50.7% of species and subspecies, respectively), hunting (52.4% and 18.8%) and agriculture, including non-timber crops and livestock farming (14.9% and 31.9%). In general, the distribution and drivers of subspecific extinctions are similar to those for species extinctions. However, our finding that, when subspecies are considered, the extinction rate has accelerated in recent decades is both novel and alarming.

Volunteer surveys are useful to evaluate conservation success and prioritise actions, but biases can undermine the utility of the data. Identifying and rectifying data issues requires an understanding of volunteer behaviour. We explored characteristics of volunteer behaviour using bird surveys in south-western Australia, and evaluated how behaviour affects data quantity and quality in an area with non-random volunteer distribution. We related home range and site fidelity of 172 volunteers to habitat and bird-species availability. Volunteer habitat selection was assessed using species accumulation curves, which identified 12 habitats with <95% inventory completeness. Volunteer biases translated to skewed bird representation in the dataset. We recommend the minimum sampling effort required for reliable species-richness estimates in each habitat, and suggest ways to achieve spatial representativeness by using different behavioural types. Volunteers with high site fidelity (often locals) produce high species detection rates, and are useful for long-term monitoring or surveying in less-favoured habitats close to urban areas.'Roaming' volunteers (often tourists) with large home ranges are useful for threatened species surveying and can fill in gaps far from urban areas, but might require incentive mechanisms to visit unfavoured habitats, as they have high habitat-, and bird-selectivity. By studying volunteer behaviour, we can set realistic goals to achieve a comprehensive dataset useful for research, management and conservation planning.