Foraging and roosting habitat of Eastern Whip-poor-wills in the northeastern United States

Abstract

The Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus: hereafter whip-poor-will) has been declining from historical population levels throughout its range in the northeast. Although whip-poor-wills have been reported to use a variety of habitats, most recent studies have associated whip-poor-wills with open canopy habitats, such as early-successional habitats or forest edges. However, there remain substantial gaps in our understanding of whip-poor-wills' habitat associations. For example, historical accounts state that whip-poor-wills roost and nest in forest and forage in openings, and thus, managers advocate the juxtaposition of habitats based on this supposition. Nevertheless, a quantitative evaluation of the habitat used for these activities is lacking. For this reason, we radiotracked 10 adult whip-poor-wills using radio telemetry in upstate New York and collected vegetation measurements at a subset at these points where the birds were either foraging at night or roosting during the day, as well as at any identified nest sites. Comparisons of the vegetation measurements revealed that foraging habitat was significantly more open than roosting habitat, as foraging habitat had lower tree density, basal area, and understory height. Contrary to historical accounts, the few nest sites found in this study were located in areas that had low basal area, similar to the habitat at foraging locations. These results suggest that although creating more opencanopy habitat may benefit whip-poor-wills by providing suitable foraging habitat, and potentially nesting habitat, maintaining denser forest within proximity to these open areas may also provide valuable cover for roosting whip-poor-wills.RESUMEN. El pato silbador oriental (Antrostomus vociferus) ha disminuido su población comparada con niveles históricos en toda su área de distribución en el noreste. Aunque se ha informado que A. vociferus utilizan diversos hábitats, la mayoría de los estudios recientes han asociado a A. vociferus con hábitats de dosel abierto, como los hábitats de transición temprana o los bordes de los bosques. Sin embargo, siguen existiendo importantes vacíos en nuestro conocimiento de las asociaciones de hábitat por parte de especies de este género. Por ejemplo, los relatos históricos afirman que A. vociferus se perchaba y anidaba en el bosque y se alimentaba en los claros, por lo que los gestores abogan por la yuxtaposición de hábitats basándose en esta suposición. Sin embargo, se carece de una evaluación cuantitativa del uso hábitat para estas actividades. Por este motivo, hemos puesto radios en 10 adultos de A. vociferus para utilizar radiotelemetría en el norte del estado de Nueva York y hemos colectado mediciones de la vegetación en un subconjunto de estos puntos en los que los pájaros buscaban comida por la noche o se perchaban durante el día, así como en los lugares de nidificación identificados. Las comparaciones de las mediciones de la vegetación revelaron que el hábitat de búsqueda de alimento era significativamente más abierto que el hábita...

Abundance and physical factors affecting the appearance of selected terrestrial birds in Khao Yai National Park using camera trapping

“…Terrestrial birds are the type of birds that are generally found on the ground, not only foraging but also nesting and roosting on the ground. However, most terrestrial birds that do fly generally stay low above the ground or close to cover when flying (Voskamp et al 2021;Spiller et al 2022). These birds contribute to energy transmission, seed dispersal, and insect and benthos balance and are the prey of carnivores.…”