A main goal of the Forest Bird Monitoring Program (FBMP) is to monitor temporal trends in forest-dwelling bird abundance in Ontario. The program has been running for over a decade. The experience gained from this program can provide methodological recommendations to anyone planning a similar program to monitor trends in bird populations. Power analyses on FBMP data indicated that for species occurring at 50 sites, 10 yr of annual sampling at either three or five locations (stations) per sampling site would provide adequate (80%) power to monitor declines in annual counts of 2–3% (18–26% decline over 10 yr). Obtaining this level of power for species found at fewer than 50 sites requires more time. The FBMP method of two visits to each site per year seems appropriate. The visits provide different information, but there is little indication that one sampling window is superior to the other.