Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Dellinger, Rachel; Wood, Petra Bohall; Jones, Peter W.; Donovan, Therese M.

doi:10.2173/bow.herthr.01

Cited by 17 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…In our Ovenbird population, apparent survival rate was 2.7-2.9 years, with a maximum lifespan of at least 11 years (Vernouillet et al, 2014). As for Hermit Thrush, some individuals have been shown to reach at least 9 years of age (Dellinger et al, 2020). Hence, females of both focal species living at least 3 to 5 years would be expected to encounter years of high or intermediate Eastern Chipmunk activity during their lifetime.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…We mapped the nests of the two most common groundnesting songbird species in our study plots, Hermit Thrush and Ovenbird. Ovenbirds prefer deciduous and mixedwood stands with an open understory (Porneluzi et al, 2020), like Eastern Chipmunks (Bowers, 1995), whereas Hermit Thrushes use a broader range of stand types (Dellinger et al, 2020). In both songbird species, females build the nest alone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Female Songbirds Avoid a Mammalian Nest Predator When Selecting Their Nest Site?

et al. 2020

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Perceived predation risk can elicit strong behavioral responses in potential prey. During nest building, songbirds exhibit anti-predator behaviors under experimental conditions. Here, we hypothesized that females of two ground-nesting songbird species, the Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) and the Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus), would use naturally available cues of predation risk when selecting their nest site, thereby avoiding activity hotspots of Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus), a predator on songbird nests and fledglings. Chipmunks are highly vocal, thus providing cues of their presence. We mapped chipmunk detections and songbird nests over four successive years in study plots located in mature deciduous forest of New Brunswick, Canada. Chipmunk activity varied by an order of magnitude among study plots and years. Nests were built further away from chipmunk detections than expected by chance in some, but not all, plot-year combinations. When comparing study plots, the proportion of nests built within hotspots of chipmunk activity was four times lower in the two plots where chipmunk activity was highest. Yet, we did not find clear evidence that chipmunk avoidance provided fitness benefits, possibly because this behavior procured little protection at high chipmunk densities. The persistence of this avoidance behavior in our focal species of ground-nesting songbirds might be linked to the benefits it procures at intermediate chipmunk densities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Female Songbirds Avoid a Mammalian Nest Predator When Selecting Their Nest Site?

et al. 2020

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“…The Hermit Thrush model showed a significant positive association with DBH, but a significant negative association with tree height. Previous observations have noted that Hermit Thrushes inhabit forested areas, which corresponded to the association with DBH but did not correspond with the tree-height relationship (Dellinger et al 2012, Morse 1971. The Summer Tanager model included only shrub density as a positive significant indicator of presence.…”

Section: Habitat Modelsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Avian Habitat Use in a Chronosequence of Bottomland Hardwood Forest-Restoration Sites

Ballen

Essner

et al. 2018

Northeastern Naturalist

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Since the 1950s, anthropogenic activity has caused the loss of millions of hectares of bottomland hardwood forest in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, causing population declines in bird populations. Restoration of these forest stands has been ongoing for the past 2 decades. We assessed bird species presence on sites in the Upper Mississippi River Valley to quantify diversity and relate presence to habitat conditions and sites' age since restoration. We observed higher mean diversities at mature bottomland-forest sites during the spring and autumn, but nested ANOVAs indicated no significant differences among restoration-age categories during spring. During the autumn, the 15-23-y and the mature bottomland-forest categories were significantly different from the <7-y category. Predictive habitat models differed among species, but presence of forest-dwelling birds was positively related to forested conditions, such as tree height and tree density. Overall, our analyses show that a variety of birds use these sites, and we suggest further exploration of how assemblages may change in future surveys.

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“…Greater ladder fuel dominance at treated points observed here may reflect the placement rather than effect of treatments. Treatments that reduce conifer saplings may reduce nesting opportunities for Hermit Thrush (Dellinger et al 2012), although foraging habitat effects may explain positive treatment relationships elsewhere (Gaines et al 2007). Positive treatment relationships for Cassin’s Finch and American Robin could reflect improved ground‐foraging opportunities with understory release in canopy openings (Hahn 1996, Gaines et al 2007, Kalies et al 2010, Vanderhoff et al 2016), although herbaceous growth did not correlate clearly with treatments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dry conifer forest restoration benefits Colorado Front Range avian communities

Latif¹,

Truex

Sparks³

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Fire suppression has increased stand density and risk of severe, stand‐replacing wildfire in lower elevation dry conifer forests of western North America, threatening ecological function. The U.S. Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) aims to mitigate impacts to ecological function, while mandating effectiveness monitoring to verify restoration success. Expected benefits include improved conditions for biodiversity, but relatively few empirical studies evaluate restoration effects on biodiversity. We applied the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions program to survey birds in relation to CFLRP treatments along the Colorado Front Range in 2015–2017. We employed hierarchical models to analyze species occupancy and richness at 1972 points nested within 141 1‐km2 grid cells. Our objectives were to investigate (1) species occupancy relationships with treatments at local (point) and landscape (grid) spatial scales, (2) potential mechanisms for treatment relationships considering species and treatment relationships with forest structure and composition (i.e., habitat relationships), and (3) treatment and habitat relationships with species richness. The data supported positive and negative point‐level treatment relationships, suggesting uneven species distributions between treated and untreated points. At the grid scale, however, we only found positive species relationships with percent area treated, and accordingly, grid‐level species richness increased with treatment extent. Potential mechanisms for treatment relationships included treatments generating foraging opportunities for aerial insectivores by opening the canopy, improving conditions for ground‐associated species by increasing herbaceous growth, and limiting opportunities for shrub‐nesting species by reducing shrub cover. Landscape‐scale patterns suggest CFLRP treatments can benefit avian communities by generating habitat for open‐forest species without necessarily eliminating habitat for closed‐forest species. Our results provide evidence for a commonly expected but rarely verified pattern of increased species richness with forest heterogeneity. We suggest restoration treatments will most benefit forest bird diversity by reducing canopy cover, encouraging herbaceous ground cover, limiting ladder fuel species, and encouraging shrub diversity in canopy openings, while maintaining some dense forest stands on the landscape.

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Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Do Female Songbirds Avoid a Mammalian Nest Predator When Selecting Their Nest Site?

Do Female Songbirds Avoid a Mammalian Nest Predator When Selecting Their Nest Site?

Avian Habitat Use in a Chronosequence of Bottomland Hardwood Forest-Restoration Sites

Dry conifer forest restoration benefits Colorado Front Range avian communities

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