Below you can find the Standard Operative Procedures (SoPs) for every aspect of the Firebird Project. Our hope for making these SOPs available to the public is to allow for a standardized methodology for surveying Black Rails and Mottled Ducks across their range.
There are six documents available for download: (1) Winter BLRA Surveys (2) Breeding BLRA Surveys (3) MODU Count Surveys (4) Vegetation Surveys (5) Photography Rules (6) ARU Surveys
Citation for our SOPs:
Fournier, A., Adams, P., Butler, M. J., Cooper, R. J., Conway, W. C., Cox, J. A., Evans, K. O., Hand, C. E., Johnson, E. J., Kalasz, K. S., Kappes, P. J., Kross, C. S., Lane, T. C., Lancaster, J. D., Levy, H. E., Lueck, J. T., Lyons, J. E., Moon, J. A., Nyman, J. A., Sanspree, C., Schwarzer, A.C., Stantial, M.L., Wilson, J.K., Woodrey, M. S. (2026). Firebird Project Standard Operating Procedures for sampling Mottled Ducks, Eastern Black Rails, and Vegetation in Gulf Coast High Marshes. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19359335
