WINTER 1998/VOLUME 12, NUMER 1

Birds in Forested Landscapes
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Birders in Forested Landscapes
By Sara E. Barker and James D. Lowe

Please cite this Page as:
Barker, S.E. and Lowe, J.D. 1998. Birders in Forested Landscapes. Birdscope, Volume 12, Number 1: 8.

In its first season, BFL attracts more participants than expected

What is hot and sweaty, covered in bug repellent, and plays the finest tunes in town? A Birds in Forested Landscapes (BFL) participant, of course. BFL took flight this past spring and summer in its first full field season. As the successor to Project Tanager, BFL looks at habitat and landscape characteristics that are critical to the successful breeding of certain thrushes and hawks. This project will serve as the basis for conservation recommendations and habitat-management strategies that will help forest-dwelling birds.

The response to BFL was overwhelming. More than 1,700 people signed up twice as many as we expected and far exceeding the number of sign-ups for Project Tanager in any single year. We are also impressed with the quality of the data from participants and the extent to which they
have completed their forms. Time and dedication—that’s what our participants are giving, and that’s why this project is already a success. We really appreciate this great effort. Thus far, we have received data from 335 participants in 46 states and 4 Canadian provinces. These participants studied 1,600 sites, an average of nearly 5 sites per person. At this early stage, BFL is matching the Project Tanager returns, and we expect BFL numbers to grow even higher. More avid citizen scientists are joining our core Project Tanager participants every day.

Seventy-four percent of BFL participants studied both hawks and thrushes, which will enable Lab biologists to study the effects of habitat fragmentation on two different landscape levels. We hope to use our new Geographical Information System (GIS) to obtain in-depth habitat information from digital maps, satellite imagery, and aerial photographs. With this added flexibility, we can analyze data not included on participants’ data forms as well as decrease the amount of habitat data participants need to record in the future.

How do nest predation and cowbird parasitism rates vary according to forest patch size, habitat characteristics, and geographic regions? Unfortunately, we have received little detailed information about nesting thrushes and hawks. Searching for nests can be one of the most time-consuming parts of this project, but it is one of the most rewarding. Next year, we hope to include more information in our literature about how to confirm nesting success or failure.

One-third of the data forms scanned to date represent participants who studied Wood Thrushes, whereas another third studied both Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks. The last third incorporates the remaining six thrush species, which breed for the most part in areas where we have few participants (see map). We need more participants throughout the Midwest, the Canadian provinces, and Alaska; we are, however, gladly signing up participants all across North America where thrushes and hawks breed.

We will present our first results in future issues of Birdscope, so keep your eyes peeled!

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