San Diego County Bird Atlas

The San Diego County Bird Atlas is one of the most ambitious research projects the San Diego Natural History Museum has ever undertaken. It establishes a new benchmark for knowledge of birds in the region of the United States with more species than any other: 492 natives, migrants, and well-established exotics. Just from 1980 to 2000 the county's human population increased by over 51%, and the status of many of the county's bird species has been changing at an equally rapid rate. Twenty percent of the county's surface burned in 2002 and 2003, making the atlas a basis for assessing the effects of these firestorms without precedent in recorded history. The atlas can serve as the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the Multiple Species Conservation Plan and similar land-management programs underway throughout the county. It reaches a level of detail unmatched in previous publications, a level far more relevant to conservation planning. With this atlas, the birds of San Diego County are now among the best known in the world.