Massachusetts and Rhode Island 2016 Birds Polygons: Nesting and Migratory Sites

Massachusetts and Rhode Island coastal and marine environments are characterized by their sensitivity to oil spills. This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for multiple bird groups, including wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, seabirds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns. Vector polygons represent bird nesting, migratory staging, and wintering sites, with associated tables for species-specific abundance, seasonality, and life history.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil spill impact zones based on sensitive bird nesting and wintering sites.
• Analyzing seasonal bird distributions for conservation planning based on migratory staging data.
• Assessing coastal resource sensitivity by integrating bird data with shoreline habitat and human-use layers.

Strengths

• Data is part of a structured Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.
• Includes species-specific attributes like abundance and seasonality in associated tables.
• Covers multiple bird groups across two U.S. states.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file format is PDF, which may complicate direct geospatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely compiled for environmental sensitivity mapping and oil spill contingency planning.

Time Range

Data appears to be from 2016, as indicated in the title.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:27:10.176723; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Massachusetts and Rhode Island, USA.