This research program involved testing and developing long-term, broad scale (i.e., eastern Colorado) monitoring protocols of shortgrass grassland avifauna that can also address biological questions and comparing the density, presence, and richness of avian species across three strata (prairie dog colonies, uncolonized grassland, and dryland agriculture) in the shortgrass prairie ecosystem of eastern Colorado.
The project was conducted by Heather Garrison-Tipton (tiptonh@cnr.colostate.edu), a master's student in the Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University (http://welcome.warnercnr.colostate.edu/fwcb-home/index.php) advised by Paul Doherty (http://www.warnercnr.colostate.edu/~doherty/) and Victoria Dreitz. The project started with the collection of field data spring 2004.