Survey teams with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies counted birds in six states during the 2017 breeding season. Oklahoma efforts focused in two Bird Conservation Regions in the western half of the state where birds seen or heard during a 5 hour 30 minute morning count window were counted.

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Western Oklahoma's short and mixed-grass praries host a suite of grassland and wetland birds. During the count, 5,800 individual birds were detected in Oklahoma, representing 107 sepcies. Thirteen of those species were considered to be of greatest conservation need. 

Biologists with the Playa Lake Joint Venture used the data to create maps showing high and low abundances of grassland birds like the grasshopper sparrow.

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