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Sustainable forest management (SFM), an explicit policy objective in Canada, balances social, economic and environmental values. The status and trends of forest-associated species is one indicator of SFM, though it is under utilized due to challenges with indicator selection and data availability. This paper demonstrates and tests an indicator selection methodology which combines Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data and LandSat land cover data to identify indicator guilds, or groups of indicator species, for a series of forest composition and configuration attributes in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest region. Guild performance is tested at independent sites within the region and compared with that of guilds assembled using known species’ habitat preferences, and abundance trends are reported for two periods: 1990–2007 and 1967–2007. Guilds assembled using the method proposed here describe more variation in forest composition (r-sq(adj): 41–76) than those assembled using known habitat preferences alone (r-sq(adj): 17–58). Forest configuration guilds, which were not compared with existing guilds, also describe a large proportion of variation in configuration attributes (r-sq(adj): 47–76). Guild abundance remained stable over the long and short term for most guilds with the exception of the wetland guild, which increased moderately over the long-term, and the deciduous guild which increased moderately over the short-term. Despite challenges associated with the use of bird guilds as indicators of forest composition and configuration, results presented here suggest that indicator guilds may provide useful information regarding the status and trends of regional scale forest composition and configuration attributes.
