Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species (appendix a - species accounts)

Steel, Zachary; Bond, Monica; Siegel, Rodney; Pyle, Peter

Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species (appendix a - species accounts). Also see the main narrative that is published as a companion document to this report: Steel, Z. L., M. L. Bond, R. B. Siegel, and P. Pyle. 2012. Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species. Natural Resource Report NPS/SIEN/NRR—2012/506. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. To inform and support the Sierra Nevada Network’s long-term bird monitoring program and the Sequoia and Kings Canyon Natural Resource Condition Assessment, we assessed distribution, abundance, ecological stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species that commonly occur in the national parks of the Sierra Nevada Network. The Network includes Devils Postpile National Monument, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Yosemite National Park. For each species, we drew from published and unpublished information to determine migratory, residency, breeding, and conservation status; significance of the parks to the species’ range; distribution and habitat associations within the parks; elevational distribution within the parks; and abundance, population trends and demography within the parks (and, to a lesser degree, across the Sierra Nevada region). We also assessed the likely effects on each bird species of five potential ecological stressors: Anthropogenic Climate Change, Altered Fire Regimes, Habitat Fragmentation or Loss, Invasive Species, and Disease Human Use Impacts. We also identified and discussed management options and conservation opportunities that park managers might consider for safeguarding the species from the identified stressors. Despite a wealth of information sources about birds in the Sierra Nevada Network parks, a great deal of uncertainty remains about a) the effects that the identified stressors have already had on individual species, b) how the stressors themselves will change in the future, and c) how bird species will respond to those changes. For many species, conclusions rely heavily on expert opinion and speculation, and remain tentative. Additional monitoring and research on ecological stressors and their effects on bird populations in the Sierra Nevada parks are still needed. Appendix A is a companion document to the summary narrative of this report and provides species accounts for the 145 focal species assessed in the report. The narrative of the report is published separately. The species accounts in this appendix synthesize existing information on each species’ status in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Yosemite National Park, and Devils Postpile National Monument, discuss possible stressors to park populations, and identify management options. The accounts draw from a variety of data and information sources including on-going monitoring projects, published literature and expert opinion. Detailed explanations of material that is presented in many or all of the species accounts are provided in the Methods section of the Introduction, in the narrative of the main report (p. 3-7 in Steel et al. 2012). Literature cited for Appendix A is included in the Literature Cited section of the main report, which is published as a separate document, as cited below: Steel, Z. L., M. L. Bond, R. B. Siegel, and P. Pyle. 2012. Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species. Natural Resource Report NPS/SIEN/NRR—2012/506. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species (appendix a - species accounts)

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