Question 2.2

What is BirdSTATs, how does it work, where can it be obtained?

Answer

BirdSTATs is a tool that facilitates the use of TRIM and makes it possible to run TRIM automatically and in batch mode. In other words, BirdSTATs run TRIM for many data at once, making the production of trends and indices faster and more effective.

BirdSTATs can import different kinds of count data, enable stratification of count sites and selection of subsets of count data, and produce standardized TRIM input and command files. It collects the output of the batched TRIM runs in a convenient and standardized format (database tables) and standard TRIM output files.

BirdSTATs is an open-source Microsoft Access database. The updated version of the BirdSTATs (including TRIM 3.54), released in March 2016, can be downloaded here (3.2 MB).

However, BirdSTATs uses older version of TRIM developed in Delfi that will not be updated anymore. We therefore strongly recommend using the updated version of TRIM – RTRIM-shell. RTRIM-shell is a set of three R-scripts developed by Statistics Netherlands and is determined to calculate national species indices sent to the PECBMS coordination unit. Therefore, it is modified specifically to the PECBMS use.