Streamside bird monitoring in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network: Fort Necessity National Battlefield 2008–2012
Marshall MR. 2021. Streamside bird monitoring in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network: Fort Necessity National Battlefield 2008–2012. Natural Resource Report. NPS/ERMN/NRR—2021/2325. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2288154
This report summarizes the first five years of monitoring the streamside bird community at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. During the 2008–2012 time period, two observers conducted 200 point count surveys and detected 2,316 individual birds at 10 point count stations within the park. Fort Necessity National Battlefield contains a rich and diverse streamside bird community with a total 71 species detected; 65 of which are target species and presumed to be breeding in the park during summer months. The majority of the 20 most abundant species were forest-associated species including both forest interior species and forest generalist species. However, several of the most abundant species were associated with early-successional forests and shrubby fields reflecting the mixed vegetation/habitat structure at the park. Twenty species overall, and seven of the 20 most abundant species, were of conservation importance in the Appalachian Mountains bird conservation region, highlighting the significance of even a relatively small park like Fort Necessity National Battlefield to avian conservation. It is not uncommon for land managers to be confronted with multiple species of conservation importance, yet which require very different habitats (e.g., early successional forest and shrubby fields versus older, unfragmented forest stands) and the situation is no different for managers of Fort Necessity National Battlefield. The mosaic of habitats and cultural resource values at the park should allow creation of management zones and management actions that potentially benefit multiple species. Information in this report and future analyses should support these decisions. Trends in unadjusted abundance over the period of monitoring were assessed for all 65 species in the defined target population(Table E-1). Trends in adjusted abundance that take into account detection probability were estimated for 25 species for which there were sufficient data. Both estimates were included in this report to provide multiple lines of evidence when assessing population trends.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Marshall, Matt
- Date of Issue
- 2021-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/nrr-2288154
- Units
- ERMN , FONE , NRSS
- Keywords
- avian conservation, bird monitoring, breeding birds, Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, ERMN, FONE, Fort Necessity National Battlefield, long-term population trends, point count survey, streamside bird