ABSTRACT
The shrubsteppe forms the dominant habitat type throughout much of the arid parts of western North America, becoming virtually the sole form of vegetation over millions of hectares in the northern Great Basin. The precise floristics of any particular shrubsteppe area will depend upon slope, exposure, and soil drainage and chemistry. Shrubsteppe bird communities generally consist of relatively few species even compared to associations of birds in the physiognomically simpler grasslands of middle North America. Sagebrush is easily the most abundant shrub, often occurring in vast monospecific stands that may stretch unbroken for literally hundreds of square kilometers. The methods used to census birds in shrubsteppe habitat may be ranked in order of increasing precision and decreasing area covered.
