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Riparian habitats comprise an extremely small physical area (< 1%) of the western United States. Although riparian systems are restricted in area, these areas harbor a wide diversity of birds and other wildlife. We are investigating vegetation and land use associations of breeding birds along the Madison and Upper Missouri Rivers from 2002-2004. In 2003, we established and initiated long-term avian monitoring along this river system using two different survey techniques: point-count surveys focused on landbirds using habitat adjacent to the river system, and river surveys focused on species that are typically poorly detected with point-count techniques (eg, waterbirds and waterfowl). In addition, we monitored nest success and physiological condition of birds using riparian areas that differed in vegetation structure. We surveyed birds at 310 point counts, accumulating over 6000 bird observations of 128 different …