Audubon Rockies and the skilled team of wildlife biologists from Precision Wildlife Resources once again hit the road in 2026 for another year of avian monitoring across Audubon Rockies Conservation Ranching certified ranches.
This year, the crew covered an impressive 548,463 acres across 12 ranches, completing all 46 planned transects, sampling 493 survey points. That is a lot of land, a lot of windshield time, and a lot of birds! From sagebrush flats and wide-open grasslands to cottonwood bottoms and pinyon-juniper country, the team crisscrossed the landscape looking—and listening—for our feathered ranch residents. In total, approximately 8,000 birds and 136 species were detected, proving once again that if you build and maintain good habitat, the birds will show up for the party.
And what a guest list it was! The 2026 surveys documented an impressive array of grassland and rangeland birds, including Western Meadowlark, Brewer’s Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Lark Bunting, Grasshopper Sparrow, Cassin’s Sparrow, Sagebrush Sparrow, Horned Lark, and Lark Sparrow. These birds are some of the true characters of the western rangelands, and their presence is a great reminder that working ranches can provide important habitat for birds while continuing to produce food and support rural communities. The surveys also picked up an impressive assortment of woodland, riparian, wetland, and migratory species, showing just how much habitat diversity can be packed into these working landscapes.
There were also some especially fun birds to put on the 2026 list. Greater Sage-Grouse, Pinyon Jay, Burrowing Owl, Ferruginous Hawk, Gray Vireo, Long-billed Curlew, Upland Sandpiper, Red-headed Woodpecker, Trumpeter Swan, White-faced Ibis, Scott’s Oriole, Virginia’s Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Clark’s Nutcracker, and Yellow-headed Blackbird all made appearances. A few of these species are not exactly the birds you expect to see around every bend in the ranch road, making their detection particularly exciting. While we may not have stumbled across every feathered unicorn on our wish lists this year, there was plenty to keep the binoculars busy. Needless to say, the 2026 surveys still produced plenty of species worth celebrating—and enough birds to show that these private lands are critically important to many avian species.
Every bird counted, and every habitat surveyed, adds another piece to an increasingly valuable long-term dataset. These annual surveys help Audubon Rockies, ranchers, and conservation partners understand how birds are using these landscapes and how thoughtful grazing and habitat management can continue to benefit wildlife. And, of course, none of this would happen without the ranchers who are managing these lands every day, the biologists willing to get up before sunrise and drive seemingly endless miles of ranch roads, and everyone who can identify a bird by a few notes while standing in the middle of nowhere. The Audubon Conservation Ranching Program ranches continue to demonstrate that healthy working lands can be productive for people and provide a remarkable home for birds—and in 2026, the birds once again gave us plenty of reasons to keep watching.
