Bird community monitoring at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Missouri: Status report

Peitz, David

In 2008, the Heartland I&M Network (HTLN) initiated breeding bird surveys on Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield (WICR), Missouri to address three objectives: (1) to monitor changes in bird community composition and abundance, (2) to improve our understanding of breeding bird – habitat relationships and the effects of management actions on such relationships, and (3) to make our bird monitoring datasets for WICR available to the larger bird conservation community. This report evaluates trends in the park’s breeding bird populations in the context of trends observed within the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s (NABCI) Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region, the bird conservation region in which the park is located. By doing so, we can assess the influence of habitat management on the park on bird populations with an understanding of what population trends are doing regionally, outside the influence of WICR natural resource management activities. One hundred and fifteen species of birds were recorded during May-June site visits in the nine years since initiating monitoring. Ninety-seven of the species are considered breeding species because they are permanent or summer residents. Seven of the breeding species recorded on WICR are species of concern for the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region. Eighteen species were observed during the survey period in sufficient numbers to calculate annual abundances and trends with some degree of confidence. The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Cardinal, and Indigo Bunting were the most common and widely distributed species on WICR. Population trends of all 18 species recorded in sufficient numbers to calculate trends were found to be uncertain within the park. Regionally, 12 species had uncertain population trends similar to that of the park. The Carolina Wren, Northern Parula, and Wild Turkey were found to have increasing populations regionally and the Eastern Wood-pewee, Indigo Bunting, and Yellow-breasted Chat had declining populations across the region. For the most part, our findings suggest that the habitat on WICR mirrors that of the region in supporting the 18 most common species recorded. Results from our most recent bird surveys (2016) showed that three grassland obligate species were recorded, the Dickcissel, Eastern Meadowlark, and Grasshopper Sparrow. However, no woodland obligates were reported on the park. This report provides current regional and local trends for breeding birds for future comparisons with bird data collected as part of the long-term monitoring efforts at WICR. With this report, park staff will be able to better plan management objectives, and assess the effectiveness of management alternatives. Monitoring data also provides park staff with additional information useful for interpreting natural resources.