Habitat restoration is a cornerstone of conservation, particularly for habitat‐limited species. However, restoration efforts are seldom rigorously monitored at meaningful spatial scales. Poor understanding of how species respond to habitat restoration programs limits conservation efficacy for habitat‐restricted species like the Golden‐winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera, GWWA). We provide one of the first concerted assessments of a national conservation program aimed at restoring songbird habitat across its breeding range. We studied GWWA response to forest habitat restoration across two broad regions with opposing population trajectories and assessed factors driving species use of restored habitats across multiple spatial scales. From 2015 to 2017, we conducted 1,145 (n = 457 locations) and 519 point counts (n = 215 locations) across the Appalachian Mountains and Great Lakes (respectively) within restored habitats. Warbler abundance within restored habitats across the Great Lakes varied with latitude, longitude, elevation, forest type, and number of growing seasons. In the Appalachian Mountains, occupancy (trueψ^) varied with longitude, elevation, forest type, and number of growing seasons. Detections were restricted to areas within close proximity to population centers (usually <24 km) in the Appalachian Mountains, where GWWAs are rare (trueψ^ = 0.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.20–0.25), but not in the Great Lakes, where GWWAs remain common (trueψ^ = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.84–0.90). Our study suggests that, even when best management practices are carefully implemented, restoration outcomes vary within/across regions and with multiscale habitat attributes. Although assessments of concerted habitat restoration efforts remain uncommon, our study demonstrates the value of monitoring data in the adaptive management process for imperiled species.

Tropical forests in the Americas are undergoing rapid conversion to commercial agriculture, and many migratory bird species that use these forests have experienced corresponding populations declines. Conservation research for migratory birds in the tropics has focused overwhelmingly on shade coffee plantations and adjacent forest, but both cover types are now in decline, creating an urgent need to evaluate conservation opportunities in other agricultural systems. Here we compare how a community of 42 Neotropical migratory bird species and a subset of five conservation-priority species differ in usage and habitat associations among a secondary forest baseline and four expanding commercial plantation systems in Guatemala: African oil palm, teak, rubber, and mixed-native hardwoods. We found that mixed-native hardwood plantations supported the highest richness and diversity of all migrants and that the three hardwood plantation types generally outperformed oil palm in richness and diversity metrics. Despite this, oil palm supported high abundance of several common and widespread species also experiencing range-wide population declines and may therefore play an important role in conserving common species. Mature secondary forest hosted low abundance and diversity of the full migratory community, but high abundance and richness of conservation priority migrants along with native hardwood and teak plantations. Likewise, the percentage of forest cover on the landscape was positively associated with priority migrant abundance and richness but negatively associated with the abundance of migrants in general, highlighting how individual species within the broad group of Neotropical migratory landbirds respond differently to anthropogenic changes in land use. Across all cover types, the retention of tall overstory trees increased the abundance, richness, and diversity of all migrants, which indicates that vertical structural diversity and remnant trees are important habitat features for birds in agricultural landscapes. Our findings show that conservation opportunities exist in hardwood and oil palm plantations, though the species likely to benefit from conservation action will vary among plantation types. For the subset of conservation priority migrants, our results suggest that conservation efforts should combine strategies that retain and restore secondary forest, promote the adoption of native hardwood and teak plantations, and promote the retention of tall, remnant trees in agricultural landscapes.

Best management practices are often written by researchers to guide land managers and landowners in the creation of habitat for wildlife species of interest. These documents are based on research evaluating the habitat needs of a species, but they also describe tools and strategies managers can implement to create or restore desired conditions. Shrub and sapling shearing is a management practice often used to improve habitat for early-successional species, yet little monitoring or research has focused on wildlife response to shearing. The goal of this research was to formally evaluate the effect of shrub and sapling shearing as a best management strategy for Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) conservation at a regional scale. Specifically, we surveyed for male Golden-winged Warblers during the breeding season in sheared sites and untreated reference sites across portions of the western Great Lakes to assess the effects of (1) management status (i.e., sheared aspen or alder vs. untreated sites) and (2) patch-level vegetation characteristics on male abundance. We found that male Golden-winged Warbler abundance was twice as high in sheared sites than in mature reference sites and peaked when sapling cover was ~40%. Male abundance was also negatively associated with percent cover of forbs and nonvegetated ground. These findings highlight the importance of patch-level heterogeneity when implementing shearing treatments for Golden-winged Warblers and demonstrate the potential need for pretreatment site assessments to help focus conservation efforts for this species. Ultimately, our results support the use of a site-specific, nuanced approach to shearing implementation to maximize cost efficiency and desired species outcomes.

The implementation of habitat management guidelines for golden‐winged warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) is believed to benefit additional species. To address widespread population declines of the golden‐winged warbler, species‐specific best management practices were developed and are guiding habitat‐based conservation programs across the species' breeding range. To date, thousands of hectares of golden‐winged warbler nesting habitat have been created across portions of the Appalachian Mountains and Great Lakes regions in the United States. The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) is expected to benefit from this habitat management. The woodcock has been declining for decades (0.84%/year in the eastern United States) largely because of loss of early successional communities like those required by the golden‐winged warbler. We examined the extent to which habitat management targeting golden‐winged warblers contributes to American woodcock conservation goals across a broad geographic extent. Additionally, we assessed various site‐ and landscape‐level factors to elucidate the context dependencies associated with successful conservation outcomes for this non‐target species. From 2015 to 2017, we conducted 1,554 American woodcock surveys at 774 unique locations treated with golden‐winged warbler best management practices across the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountains. Woodcock density was 0.84–1.24 males/ha in the Great Lakes region and 0.30 males/ha in the Appalachian Mountains. Density was also dependent upon within‐stand conditions (e.g., basal area, woody regeneration) and landscape features (e.g., wetland cover, mixed forest cover), the latter of which yielded strong geographic heterogeneity in woodcock densities. American woodcock can benefit from habitat management targeting the golden‐winged warbler, but the extent of these benefits is influenced by regional, landscape, and within‐stand contexts.