Description
The dataset contains information on the results of bird counts conducted at 32 stationary Vantage Points (VP), as well as counts at 9 Point Counts (PC) and birds surveys along 27 car routes from December 2019 to March 2020 (research methods are detailed in the "Sampling" and "methodStep" sections). Data collection took place along the valleys of the Molochna and Malyi Utliuk rivers, as well as on the shores of the Molochna and Utliuk estuaries. Surveys were conducted over 65 days: December 9–22 (14 days), January 12–27 (16 days), February 6–25 (20 days), and March 8–22 (15 days). The dataset includes 7,170 records resulting from quantitative bird counts, encompassing 128 species and 18 taxa identified at the genus level. Field studies were conducted under individual civil law contracts for the development of scientific and technical products titled "Monitoring of the ornithofauna in the area of the proposed Azov Wind Power Plant aimed at assessing potential threats to birds from its operation", commissioned by "ENBITI UKRAINE LTD" (Kyiv) (ТОВ «ЕНБІТІ Україна» (Київ)).
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 890 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Andryushchenko Y, Atemasov A, Bronskov O, Domashevsky S, Panchuk O, Popenko V, Vetrov V, Moskalenko Y (2025). Bird counts in the Northwestern Azov Sea Subregion in December 2019 — March 2020. Version 1.0. Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station. Samplingevent dataset. https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=birdcensus2019_2020azov&v=1.0
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 5ab86f6c-71aa-4d68-8e6b-b00f2c1081aa. Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Azov Sea; birds; Aves; ornithofauna; biodiversity; wetlands; counts; 2019; 2020; bird flights; number; flight directions; flight heights; wintering; wandering; migration; Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station; Azov-Black Sea region; Observation
Contacts
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7731-1734
- Originator
- Originator
- Custodian Steward
Geographic Coverage
The geography of the conducted studies covers Northwestern Azov Sea Subregion – a submeridional strip up to 100 km long along the valley of the Molochna River, including the Molochna and Utliuk Limans (Melitopol district, Zaporizhzhia region). Landscapes: predominantly agricultural fields bordered by shelterbelts, with small river valleys added to the north and the slopes of marine limans valleys with remnants of natural habitats to the south.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
The dataset consists of records of avian species only.
| Kingdom | Animalia |
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| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2019-12-09 / 2020-03-22 |
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Project Data
With the help of the project two more publishers from Ukraine were registered. This means that despite rocket attacks, close to the front line, lack of light... Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Melitopol continue to work on publication of scientific archives of the West-Ukrainian Ornithological Society and Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Working Group. Both organizations registered with GBIF and our operators have already handed over the first sets data for publication. And this means that more than 10,000 verified records of bird registrations will appear with open access.
| Title | «Відкрита наука: співпраця орнітологів Львова і Мелітополя для збереження наукової спадщини» |
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| Funding | The project is supported by Charity Organisation “Charity Fondation ‘Fondation of Strategic Changes’” (Благодійна організація «Благодійний Фонд Фундація стратегічних змін»). |
| Study Area Description | The project covers the entire territory of Ukraine. |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
The bird surveys were conducted according to the methodology recommended by Scottish Natural Heritage (Recommended Bird Survey Methods, 2017). Most surveys were carried out using point counts at a network of observation points (VP and PC), with coordinates specified in the fields decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude. Absolute bird counts were conducted from a stationary point within a 2000-meter survey radius over a specific time period (indicated in the sampleSizeValue field). At VP sites, species composition and bird numbers were recorded, along with flight data for target species — their altitudes, directions, duration, intensity, and more. At PC sites, species composition and bird numbers along the shores of the Molochnyi and Utlyuk estuaries were surveyed weekly. Route-based surveys were conducted along vehicle routes of varying lengths (from 3 to 11.8 km). Due to the complex configuration of the routes, the centroid, its coordinates, and the spatial uncertainty value for route-based surveys (coordinateUncertaintyInMeters) were determined as follows. In the QGIS environment, two-kilometre buffer polygons were created around the route lines, and centroids of these polygons were generated. The coordinates of these centroids were calculated and recorded in the fields decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude for the respective routes. The coordinateUncertaintyInMeters parameter was determined as the maximum distance from the centroid to the boundary of the buffer polygon, rounded to the nearest hundred metres. All observations across survey types were conducted using binoculars (8-12x magnification) and spotting scopes (30-60x magnification). References: Recommended Bird Survey Methods to Inform Impact Assessment of Onshore Wind Farms. 2017. Scottish Natural Heritage. pp. 1–36. https://www.nature.scot/doc/recommended-bird-survey-methods-inform-impact-assessment-onshore-windfarms
| Study Extent | Counts were conducted at a network of designated sites in December 2019 and January–March 2020 on a daily basis during the following periods: December 9–22, January 12–27, February 6–25, and March 8–22. Counts at Vantage Points (VP) lasted for 3 hours, while Point Counts (PC) lasted from 5 to 50 minutes. The time of observations at each point varied from day to day to obtain data on bird activity at different times of the day. Car-based surveys were conducted along routes ranging from 3 to 11.8 kilometres in length. |
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| Quality Control | The authors are responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the data published within this dataset. |
Method step description:
- Conducting censuses at specified points or along routes, recording the data in field data sheets and on corresponding maps (noting flight directions of target species and locations of large bird aggregations on the maps).
- Transferring collected survey data into electronic spreadsheets.
- Creating a summary table with the survey data.
- Creating route maps in QGIS software, measuring the lengths of the routes, creating two-kilometre buffers around the routes, identifying the centroids of the buffers, and calculating the maximum distances from the centroids to the boundaries of the respective buffers.
- Importing the summary spreadsheet into OpenRefine to identify and correct errors, standardizing species names according to the nomenclature used by GBIF, and converting the data to the DarwinCore standard.
- Importing data into MS Access database and generating events and occurrence tables.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=birdcensus2019_2020azov |
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