In response to the Governor of California's order to address an unprecedented threat to public health and safety, and taking into consideration the responses to a query of County Coordinators, the 2020 Tricolored Blackbird Statewide Survey has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for next year.

This was a difficult decision as there were many participants who still intended to get out and survey for birds in early April, but there were more who wished to remain at home and who asked that the 2020 Survey be postponed.  As the purpose of the Statewide Survey is to derive an estimate of the population of tricolored blackbirds in California, if large gaps exist in the areas to be covered, no reliable estimate could be made.  We identified entire counties in which locations would likely have gone unsurveyed, and there were agencies and consulting firms where policies would have prevented participation, and DOD and other properties that would have been closed on the Survey weekend.  Thus, this was our only recourse.

We intend to conduct the next Statewide Survey in April, 2021.