Using nest captures and video cameras to estimate survival and abundance of breeding Piping Plovers Charadrius melodus

The estimation of abundance is fundamental to ecology and conservation but often is difficult or impossible to accomplish reliably. Recent improvements in wildlife cameras and ecological modelling have allowed for improved accuracy in estimates of abundance. In this study, we paired nest captures and high-definition nest video camera monitoring with modelling for a novel approach to estimate survival and abundance of threatened Piping Plovers Charadrius melodus breeding on Missouri River sandbars. From 2005 to 2014, we captured individuals on nests and uniquely marked them and recaptured previously marked individuals. In 2015–2017, we resighted marked individuals using small, high-definition video cameras deployed at nests, and counted the number of marked and unmarked breeding individuals associated with nests. We estimated apparent survival and derived estimates of the abundance of breeding individuals and population growth each year using a state-space Jolly–Seber superpopulation model with the addition of a binomial band ratio model for data collected using nest video cameras. Apparent survival averaged 0.73 ± 0.03 (mean ± sd) throughout the study. The number of breeding individuals varied, with the population increasing from 2012 to 2017 following a major habitat creation event. This study provides one of the few examples of camera data being used to produce demographic parameter and abundance estimates for an avian species. The camera and modelling methods described in this study may be applicable to other avian species in which some portion of the breeding population is uniquely marked.