9. Understanding Declines In Rusty Blackbirds

Greenberg, Russell; Demarest, Dean W.; Matsuoka, Steven M.; Mettke-Hofmann, Claudia; Evers, David C.; Hamel, Paul B.; Luscier, Jason D.; Powell, Luke L.; Shaw, David; Avery, Michael L.; Hobson, Keith A.; Blancher, Peter J.; Niven, Daniel K.

doi:10.1525/9780520950580-012

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…We created predictor habitat variables based on published literature [24][25][26]38], our field observations, habitat characteristics used in our revised survey protocol, and relevance to forest management. We generated predictor variables for SWDI from layers we created in ARCMAP 10.4 using forest stand maps (Wagner), and soil, river, and wetland maps from New Hampshire Geographically Referenced Analysis and Information Transfer System (NH GRANIT, hereafter GRANIT; Table 1).…”

Section: Habitat Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a continental migrant that breeds primarily in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska, with populations in Acadian forests of northern New England and eastern Canada [17] and northern New York [18,19]. The species has experienced an estimated 85-95% continent-wide population decline with accelerated decline rates beginning in the early 1970s [20][21][22][23][24]. It has been declared a species of conservation concern by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service [25] and is considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rusty Blackbird Habitat Selection and Survivorship during Nesting and Post-Fledging

Wohner¹,

Foss²,

Cooper³

2020

Diversity

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Rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) populations have declined dramatically since the 1970s and the cause of decline is still unclear. As is the case for many passerines, most research on rusty blackbirds occurs during the nesting period. Nest success is relatively high in most of the rusty blackbird’s range, but survival during the post-fledging period, when fledgling songbirds are particularly vulnerable, has not been studied. We assessed fledgling and adult survivorship and nest success in northern New Hampshire from May to August in 2010 to 2012. We also assessed fledgling and adult post-fledging habitat selection and nest-site selection. The likelihood of rusty blackbirds nesting in a given area increased with an increasing proportion of softwood/mixed-wood sapling stands and decreasing distances to first to sixth order streams. Wetlands were not selected for nest sites, but both adults and fledglings selected wetlands for post-fledging habitat. Fledglings and adults selected similar habitat post-fledging, but fledglings were much more likely to be found in habitat with an increasing proportion of softwood/mixed-wood sapling stands and were more likely to be closer to streams than adults. No habitat variables selected during nesting or post-fledging influenced daily survival rates, which were relatively low for adults over the 60-day study periods (males 0.996, females 0.998). Fledgling survival rates (0.89) were much higher than reported for species of similar size.

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Section: Habitat Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rusty Blackbird Habitat Selection and Survivorship during Nesting and Post-Fledging

Wohner¹,

Foss²,

Cooper³

2020

Diversity

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“…The LMAV was a particularly suitable area for all flock sizes (Figure 2, [5]). Though we also found a broad swath across the southeast coastal plain that was generally suitable, with small hotspots in north coastal South Carolina [25], the majority of the East Coast of the United States appears less suitable than the LMAV.…”

Section: Regional Hotspots and Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a Nearctic icterid that exhibits near exclusive reliance on forested wetland habitats in boreal, transitional and deciduous biomes throughout its annual cycle [1][2][3]. The species is among the most steadily and precipitously declining temperate North American landbirds, [4][5][6] and is recognized as "Vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There is some anecdotal evidence that factors in boreal breeding regions of northeast North America may be limiting the population (timber management and nest success: [7]; mercury: [8]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, habitat modification on the species' wintering grounds has been implicated as a likely driver of the decline [5,9], stressing the importance of studying this period of the species' life cycle. Further, population monitoring and broad assessments of habitat selection across the boreal breeding range are extremely challenging given the general remoteness and the very low density of roads, humans, and Rusty Blackbirds themselves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Flock Size Predicts Niche Breadth and Focal Wintering Regions for a Rapidly Declining Boreal-Breeding Passerine, the Rusty Blackbird

et al. 2021

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Once exceptionally abundant, the Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) has declined precipitously over at least the last century. The species breeds across the Boreal forest, where it is so thinly distributed across such remote areas that it is extremely challenging to monitor or research, hindering informed conservation. As such, we employed a targeted citizen science effort on the species’ wintering grounds in the more (human) populated southeast United States: the Rusty Blackbird Winter Blitz. Using a MaxEnt machine learning framework, we modeled patterns of occurrence of small, medium, and large flocks (<20, 20–99, and >99 individuals, respectively) in environmental space using both Blitz and eBird data. Our primary objective was to determine environmental variables that best predict Rusty Blackbird occurrence, with emphasis on (1) examining differences in key environmental predictors across flock sizes, (2) testing whether environmental niche breadth decreased with flock size, and (3) identifying regions with higher predicted occurrence (hotspots). The distribution of flocks varied across environmental predictors, with average minimum temperature (~2 °C for medium and large flocks) and proportional coverage of floodplain forest having the largest influence on occurrence. Environmental niche breadth decreased with increasing flock size, suggesting an increasingly restrictive range of environmental conditions capable of supporting larger flocks. We identified large hotspots in floodplain forests in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, the South Atlantic Coastal Plain, and the Black Belt Prairie.

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Waterbird demography as indicator of wetland health: The French-wintering common snipe population

Péron

Ferrand

Leray

et al. 2013

Biological Conservation

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9. Understanding Declines In Rusty Blackbirds

Cited by 5 publications

References 40 publications

Rusty Blackbird Habitat Selection and Survivorship during Nesting and Post-Fledging

Rusty Blackbird Habitat Selection and Survivorship during Nesting and Post-Fledging

Flock Size Predicts Niche Breadth and Focal Wintering Regions for a Rapidly Declining Boreal-Breeding Passerine, the Rusty Blackbird

Waterbird demography as indicator of wetland health: The French-wintering common snipe population

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