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At least 433 records · Page 24Linked to original sources

USGS1999

Role of banding in forest conservation strategy in eastern Guatemala

In response to a request from FUNDAECO, a Guatemalan non-government organization, we worked with them to develop a conservation strategy for the Cerro San Gil Protected Area and surrounding private lands. Volunteer banders from a dozen states and Canadian provinces assisted in long-term monitoring of populations of resident and migratory species through banding and point counts. Guatemalan students were trained to continue the research and initiate other conservation projects. Banding data helped demonstrate habitat and elevational affiliations, effects of habitat fragmentation, site fidelity, survival rates, local movements, and presence of rare species not otherwise detected. Banding was also an excellent teaching tool and provided videos for conservation programs on Guatemala national television. Roadside and off-road Breeding Bird Survey transects were used to map distribution of breeding species on habitat maps derived from satellite imagery, and point count surveys on private lands were used to identify prime habitats that warrant protection through conservation easements--a new concept for Central America.

North American Bird Bander↗

USGS2021

Galliform exclusion from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has produced an alternate conservation path, but no evidence for differences in population status

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) is critical to avian conservation in the United States, both through its protection of migratory birds and as a catalyst for a century of coordinated avian conservation. While more than 1,000 species are protected by MBTA, of extant bird species native to the continental U.S., only 20 species belonging to the order Galliformes are explicitly excluded. Management of galliforms has occurred largely without direct federal oversight, placing this group on a fundamentally different conservation path during the century following MBTA passage. In this paper, we review the historical context and biological justification for exclusion of galliforms from MBTA and synthesize how their present-day conservation differs from that of migratory birds. We find the most prominent difference between the two groups involves the scope of coordination among stakeholders. The U.S. government, primarily via the Department of Interior, acts as de facto coordinating body for migratory bird conservation and plays the central role in oversight, funding, and administration of management in the United States. In contrast, galliform management falls primarily to individual state wildlife agencies, and coordinated conservation efforts have been more ad hoc and unevenly spread across species. Migratory birds benefit from an almost universally greater scope of research and monitoring, scale of habitat conservation, and sophistication of harvest management compared with galliforms. Galliform harvest management plans, in particular, are less likely to use measurable objectives, reporting of uncertainty in population parameters, and explanation of harvest management techniques. Based on a review of species status lists (e.g., the U.S. Endangered Species Act), we found no evidence that galliforms were more frequently listed than migratory species. Regional trend estimates from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) were more likely to be negative for galliforms over the period 1966–2015, but this was primarily driven by Northern Bobwhite ( Colinus virginianus ). Data to assess galliform population status are generally poor, which complicates assessment for roughly half of galliform species. Increased support for coordination among state agencies and other stakeholders, similar to that applied to migratory birds, could help to ensure that galliform conservation is poised to tackle forthcoming challenges associated with global change.

North America↗

USGS2000

Atlantic Flyway review: Piedmont-Coastal Plain, Region IV, Fall 1999: Patuxent powerline right-of-way (390-0764)

Fall 1999 was among the poorest seasons in this banding station's 20 years of operation. Record high capture totals were set for only two species: Ruby-throated Hummingbird (41 individuals captured, none banded; previous high 21) and White-breasted Nuthatch (two individuals banded; previous high, one). The only other species that stood out as being unusually numerous was Blackpoll Warbler, for which the banding total (33 birds) was the highest since 1988. Bandings of several species (Red-eyed Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Ovenbird, Hooded Warbler, Canada Warbler, Eastern Towhee, and Field Sparrow) were at record lows, and bandings of many other species were below the long-term (1980-1998) mean. The number of species banded was also below the long-term mean of 86 species, and tied the previous low. Possible contributing factors included drought conditions in Maryland and elsewhere in the East, which may have influenced nesting productivity and migration dates for some species; Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd, which influenced East Coast weather through much of September; the unprecedented scarcity of Hercules' Club ( Aralia spinosa ) fruits at the banding station; and occasional visits by a gray fox, which reduced operation of some nets in October and November. A season highlight was the August capture of 37 Red-eyed Vireos banded at this station in previous years, including a bird banded in August 1989. These are almost certainly locally nesting birds that feed on the abundant fruits of Viburnum dentatum in the powerline right-of-way in late summer. Regular assistants at the banding station included Woody Martin, Susie Michaelson, Jane Nicolich, Gemma Radko, Jack Saba, Julie Tomita, and Laurie Walter. Danny Bystrak and Mary Gustafson each served as bander-in-charge on several mornings.

Maryland↗

USGS1989

A technique to prevent capturing birds in unattended, furled mist nets

A technique was developed to prevent the inadvertent capturing of birds in unattended mist nets left in place for long periods of time. This was accomplished by placing furled nets on top of 9-inch wide strips of 30-pound roofing felt secured to the ground between net support poles. All materials used are widely available and procedures used to make the felt strips and install them are described.

North American Bird Bander↗

USGS2002

Three geese resembling Gray-Bellied Brant/Lawrence's Brant from Long Island, New York

Three oddly plumaged brant, intermediate in several respects between 'Atlantic' or 'Pale-bellied Brant' (hrota) and ?Black Brant? (nigricans) were photographed and described on western Long Island, New York during 2002 (two in March, the third in October). Their plumage corresponded to that of the little-studied, and apparently genetically distinctive small population known among goose biologists as 'Gray-bellied Brant,' which breeds only on a few islands in the western Canadian High Arctic, stages in migration in the inner Aleutians, and winters in a small portion of the Greater Puget Sound area. But Gray-bellied Brant also wander, having recently been found in winter as far from Puget Sound as Baja California in the west, and Iceland and the British Isles to the east?these strays presumably having migrated southwest with Pacific-wintering nigricans and southeast with Atlantic-wintering hrota, respectively. Despite their tendency to associate with locally wintering hrota and nigricans, mixed pairs or hybrid young involving these vagrants have never been demonstrated in North America?nor have mixed pairs or hybrid young between hrota and nigricans, despite widespread belief to the contrary. Complicating the picture is that the type specimen of nigricans, a distinctive New Jersey specimen collected in 1846, also differs from 'true' Pacific Coast Black Brant in several respects, in a manner qualitatively similar to the LI birds described herein. The appearance of the type, often referred to informally as 'Lawrence?s Brant,' differs from typical Black Brant to such an extent that Delacour and Zimmer (1952) rejected application of nigricans to Pacific Black Brant, to which the name orientalis would have to be applied instead. Recent examination of museum specimens of breeding- and winter-area Gray-bellies confirms that Lawrence?s Brant closely resembles some of them?as do these three Long Island birds. Whatever the ultimate statuses of Gray-bellied and Lawrence's Brant prove to be?and however the relationships among them and the three currently recognized other taxa of brant eventually play out?birds resembling Gray-bellied/Lawrence?s are occurring on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts and perhaps also in interior North America, so knowledge of their plumage variation should now be factored into the identification of all oddly-plumaged or out-of-range brant, but especially of putative 'nigricans' inland or on the Atlantic Coast.

North American Birds↗

USGS2021

Demographic and potential biological removal models identify raptor species sensitive to current and future wind energy

A central challenge in applied ecology is understanding the effect of anthropogenic fatalities on wildlife populations and predicting which populations may be particularly vulnerable and in greatest need of management attention. We used 3 approaches to investigate potential effects of fatalities from collisions with wind turbines on 14 raptor species for both current (106 GW) and anticipated future (241 GW) levels of installed wind energy capacity in the United States. Our goals were to identify species at relatively high vs low risk of experiencing population declines from turbine collisions and to also compare results generated from these approaches. Two of the approaches used a calculated turbine-caused mortality rate to decrement population growth, where population trends were derived either from the North American Breeding Bird Survey or a matrix model parameterized from literature-derived demographic values. The third approach was potential biological removal, which estimates the number of fatalities that allow a population to reach and maintain its optimal sustainable population set by management concerns. Different results among the methods reveal substantial gaps in knowledge and uncertainty in both demographic parameters and species-specific estimates of fatalities from wind turbines. Our results suggest that, of the 14 species studied, those with relatively higher potential of population-level impacts from wind turbine collisions included barn owl, ferruginous hawk, golden eagle, American kestrel, and red-tailed hawk. Burrowing owl, Cooper’s hawk, great horned owl, northern harrier, turkey vulture, and osprey had a relatively lower potential for population impacts, and results were not easily interpretable for merlin, prairie falcon, and Swainson’s hawk. Projections of current levels of fatalities to future wind energy scenarios at 241 GW of installed capacity suggest some species could experience population declines because of turbine collisions. Populations of those species may benefit from research to identify tools to prevent or reduce raptor collisions with wind turbines.

Ecosphere↗

USGS2000

Atlantic Flyway review: Piedmont-Coastal Plain, Region IV, Fall 1999: Robbins Nest, Laurel, MD (390-0765)

This is the first of three stations along the Patuxent River. Elevation here at the edge of the Piedmont ranges from 265 ft at the house to 160 ft at the river. In spite of easterly winds and heavily overcast skies from Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene, we suffered from drought all summer, not rain. We had only about two inches each in June and July, 4.55 in August, then a whopping 16.03 in September, and a normal 3.46 in October. This station operates all day on weekends, but only before and after work on other days. Net-hours were 5% above the 26-year mean of 3655, but way down from last year because other commitments kept me out of town on several weekends. I had only 14 days when I could net all day. Although the most birds were banded on opening day, the most per net-hour were on 19 and 15 October and 23 September. The nets caught 26 returns from prior years, the oldest being a seven-year-old Blue Jay and a seven-year-old cardinal. To illustrate how biased a sample one can obtain from netting, I captured only one junco in the nets, but caught 47 of them in baited traps on our deck. Other species taken only in the traps (and not included in the totals) were Mourning Dove, Chipping Sparrow, House Finch, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch.

Maryland↗

USGS2004

Type C botulism in pelicans and other fish-eating birds at the Salton Sea

In 1996, type C avian botulism killed over 10,000 pelicans and nearly 10,000 other fish-eating birds at the Salton Sea in southern California. Although botulism had been previously documented in waterbirds at the Sea, this die-off was unusual in that it involved primarily fish-eating birds. The American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorynchos ) was the species with the greatest mortality in 1996. Since 1996, mortality has recurred every year but losses have declined (<2,000 birds/year), with relatively more Brown Pelicans ( P. occidentalis ) than White Pelicans afflicted. In 2000, morbidity and mortality of Brown Pelicans with type C botulism (1311) approached the numbers afflicted in 1996 (2034). In recent years, mortality reached a peak earlier in the summer, July and August, in contrast to 1996 when mortality reached a peak in September. An exotic fish species, tilapia ( Oreochromis mossambicus ), has been implicated as the source of toxin for birds at Salton Sea, but the source of toxin for fish is unknown.

California↗

USGS2025

A flexible framework for N-mixture occupancy models: Applications to breeding bird surveys

Estimating species abundance under imperfect detection is a key challenge in biodiversity conservation. The N -mixture model, widely recognized for its ability to distinguish between abundance and individual detection probability without marking individuals, is constrained by its stringent closure assumption, which leads to biased estimates when violated in real-world settings. To address this limitation, we propose an extended framework based on a development of the mixed Gamma-Poisson model, incorporating a community parameter that represents the proportion of individuals consistently present throughout the survey period. This flexible framework generalizes both the zero-inflated type occupancy model and the standard N -mixture model as special cases, corresponding to community parameter values of 0 and 1, respectively. The model’s effectiveness is validated through simulations and applications to real-world datasets, specifically with 5 species from the North American Breeding Bird Survey and 46 species from the Swiss Breeding Bird Survey, demonstrating its improved accuracy and adaptability in settings where strict closure may not hold.

Biometrics↗

USGS2006

A brief report on the illegal cage-bird trade in southern Florida: a potentially serious negative impact on the eastern population of Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)

Populations of Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) have been declining annually over the past 35 years. A cursory survey indicates that illegal trapping of Painted Buntings for a black market cage-bird trade is widespread in southeastern Florida. Coupled with other negative factors confronting the eastern population, the trapping of buntings for the cagebird trade may, in time, produce dire results for this native songbird. Law enforcement personnel need to continue to monitor the illegal activity of trapping native passerines for the local songbird market and to continue to arrest those who support it.

North American Birds↗

USGS2003

Response of vegetation and breeding birds to the removal of cattle on the San Pedro River, Arizona (U.S.A.)

In late 1987 cattle were removed from the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area ( NCA ) in southeastern Arizona ( U.S.A. ). We monitored vegetation density and abundance of birds during the breeding season during 1986a??1990 in riparian, mesquite grassland, and Chihuahuan desert-scrub communities in the NCA. The density of herbaceous vegetation increased four- to six-fold in riparian and mesquite grassland communities. Little change occurred in herbaceous vegetation in desert scrub, or in the density of shrubs or trees in any of the communities. Of 61 bird species for which sufficient data were collected, mean detections per kilometer increased for 42 species, 26 significantly, and decreased for 19 species, 8 significantly. The number of individuals of all avian species detected on surveys increased each year from 103/kilometer in 1986 to 221/kilometer in 1991, an average annual increase of 23% ( p < 0.001 ). The largest increases occurred in riparian species, open-cup nesters, Neotropical migrants, and insectivores. Species of the Chihuahuan desert-scrub, in which vegetation changed the least, showed the smallest increases. Only a few of the species showed increasing regional trends for the same period, as demonstrated by the North American Breeding Bird Survey; thus, increases on the San Pedro Riparian NCA were likely caused by the change in local conditions, not by regional effects. Our results suggest that removing cattle from riparian areas in the southwestern United States can have profound benefits for breeding birds.

Conservation Biology↗

USGS2004

A hierarchical spatial model of avian abundance with application to Cerulean Warblers

Surveys collecting count data are the primary means by which abundance is indexed for birds. These counts are confounded, however, by nuisance effects including observer effects and spatial correlation between counts. Current methods poorly accommodate both observer and spatial effects because modeling these spatially autocorrelated counts within a hierarchical framework is not practical using standard statistical approaches. We propose a Bayesian approach to this problem and provide as an example of its implementation a spatial model of predicted abundance for the Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) in the Prairie-Hardwood Transition of the upper midwestern United States. We used an overdispersed Poisson regression with fixed and random effects, fitted by Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We used 21 years of North American Breeding Bird Survey counts as the response in a loglinear function of explanatory variables describing habitat, spatial relatedness, year effects, and observer effects. The model included a conditional autoregressive term representing potential correlation between adjacent route counts. Categories of explanatory habitat variables in the model included land cover composition and configuration, climate, terrain heterogeneity, and human influence. The inherent hierarchy in the model was from counts occurring, in part, as a function of observers within survey routes within years. We found that the percentage of forested wetlands, an index of wetness potential, and an interaction between mean annual precipitation and deciduous forest patch size best described Cerulean Warbler abundance. Based on a map of relative abundance derived from the posterior parameter estimates, we estimated that only 15% of the species' population occurred on federal land, necessitating active engagement of public landowners and state agencies in the conservation of the breeding habitat for this species. Models of this type can be applied to any data in which the response is counts, such as animal counts, activity (e.g.,nest) counts, or species richness. The most noteworthy practical application of this spatial modeling approach is the ability to map relative species abundance. The functional relationships that we elucidated for the Cerulean Warbler provide a basis for the development of management programs and may serve to focus management and monitoring on areas and habitat variables important to Cerulean Warblers.

Ecological Applications↗

USGS1982

A.B.A. Checklist: Birds of Continental United States and Canada

The 'Summary' in this edition of the A BA Checklist has been greatly expanded to include all properly documented records for each accidental species. These records are published, except for a very few recent ones which are in press or in preparation. Emphasis is on records supported by specimens or photographs, but sight records are also included. To make these accounts more useful to researchers, a reference has been given for each record. All records, except those identified as '(photo)' or '(specimen)', or by some other type of objective evidence, are sight records. Because of the interest shown in this section of the Checklist, coverage has not been confined to accidental species (defined as those which have occurred fewer than ten times in the ABA Checklist area during the twentieth century). Accounts are also given for selected rare visitors and native species. Two of the primary references are abbreviated in the accounts: Audubon Field Notes-AFN, and American Birds-AB.

Book↗

USGS1974

Capture-recapture analysis of a wintering black-capped chickadee population in Connecticut, 1958-1993

We investigated the dynamics of a wintering population of Black-capped Chickadees (Parus atricapillus) using data from a long-term capture-recapture study. Goodness-of-fit and likelihood-ratio tests indicated that the standard Jolly-Seber model was inadequate for the data, so we explored different parameterizations of a model in which survival probability for new captures differed from that of previously marked birds. One possible explanation for the lower local survival rate of new captures is that some of the birds were transients that had no chance of being recaptured. Average survival probability over the entire period was 0.62, and the estimated fraction of transients among unmarked birds was 0.27. We found evidence that chickadee survival rates were lower in years immediately following establishment of the Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor) as a territorial species (after 1967) than during years immediately preceding this event. We found no evidence that chickadee survival rates were lower in the years immediately following establishment of territorial raptors (after 1984) than during preceding years. Evidence suggested a long-term decline in survival probability from 1959 to 1991.

American Birds↗

USGS2006

An efficient method of capturing Painted Buntings and other small granivorous passerines

To study survival in the eastern breeding population of the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), I developed a technique to capture a large sample of buntings for color marking with leg-bands. This involved the use of bird feeders and an array of three short mist nets located at 40 sites in four states, each site meeting five specific criteria. In five years of mist netting (1999-2003), 4174 captures (including recaptures) of Painted Buntings were made in 3393 net-hours or 123 captures per 100 net-hours. The technique proved to be effective and efficient, and may have broad application for capturing large numbers of small granivorous passerines.

North American Bird Bander↗

USGS2019

Coastal marsh bird habitat selection and responses to Hurricane Sandy

Wetlands provide numerous ecosystem functions such as water purification, nutrient cycling, and wildlife habitat. Avian populations are indicators of wetland health, and understanding their responses to extreme events can aid in targeting restoration efforts following disturbance. Here, we assessed the habitat selection of six coastal wetland bird species (American Bittern, Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Egret, Glossy Ibis, Snowy Egret, Yellow-crowned Night Heron) related to an extreme weather event, Hurricane Sandy. We used Discrete Choice Resource Selection Functions to estimate habitat selection. Results showed species probability of use increased with lower elevation and slope, and closer proximity to marsh, salt marsh, Phragmites , and protected areas. Estimates of marsh dieback from Hurricane Sandy occurred disproportionately in areas with higher probability of species use. Species were observed farther from the coast and at higher elevations in the four breeding seasons after (2013–2016) compared to before (2000–2012) Hurricane Sandy. Our results indicate that although high suitability areas were affected by the storm, these six wetland bird species may have responded by moving inland and to higher elevation. Understanding how coastal wetland birds respond to storm events is important for conservation planning, particularly as storm frequency is projected to increase in the future.

New Jersey↗

USGS2005

Estimating size and composition of biological communities by modeling the occurrence of species

We develop a model that uses repeated observations of a biological community to estimate the number and composition of species in the community. Estimators of community-level attributes are constructed from model-based estimators of occurrence of individual species that incorporate imperfect detection of individuals. Data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey are analyzed to illustrate the variety of ecologically important quantities that are easily constructed and estimated using our model-based estimators of species occurrence. In particular, we compute site-specific estimates of species richness that honor classical notions of species-area relationships. We suggest extensions of our model to estimate maps of occurrence of individual species and to compute inferences related to the temporal and spatial dynamics of biological communities.

Journal of the American Statistical Association↗

USGS1980

Atlantic Flyway review: Region V: Laurel, Prince Georges County, MD (390-0765)

Despite a 22% increase in net-hours, the number of new birds banded dropped 26% from 1977. The decrease was noted in each month and was spread among all of the commonest species, including summer residents, winter residents, permanent residents, and transients. The greatest declines were in Scarlet Tanager (84%), Blue Jay (78%), Red-eyed Vireo (67%), Gray Catbird (62%), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (60%}, Mrytle Warbler (56%), Gray-cheeked Thrush (55%), Wood Thrush (44%0, Cardinal (38%), and White-throated Sparrow (30%). Of these species, only the Scarlet Tanager and Myrtle Warbler had been banded in unusually large numbers in 1977. Partly offsetting the decreases were a few increases: Veery (from 4 to 22 birds), Black-and-white Warbler (3 to 12), and Ovenbird (15 to 34). The four species that had been singled out for mention last year as being victims of the severe winter weather in 1976-77 - the Winter and Carolina Wrens and the Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets - fared no better in 1978. The first three were banded in almost identical nnmbers to 1977, and the Ruby-crown dropped again as indicated in the first paragraph.

Maryland↗