Avian use of early successional habitats: Are regenerating forests, utility right-of-ways and reclaimed surface mines the same?

Abstract

The importance of early successional habitats for breeding and post-breeding birds has received recent attention. Common early successional habitats in the eastern United States are regeneration after timber harvests, utility right-of ways and reclaimed surface mines. Few studies, however, have compared the characteristics of these with regard to avian habitat use. We conducted a passive mist-netting study to assess the breeding and post-breeding avian communities associated with these land uses in the Cumberland Mountains of eastern Tennessee. We used analysis of variance to compare the vegetation structure among these habitat types and discriminant function analyses to illustrate differences in vegetation structure and bird abundance among habitats. We banded 1562 individuals of 40 species (1.08 birds/net-hour). The percent cover of saplings, forbs and grass differed among habitat types, but there was no detectable difference in shrub cover. Vegetation structure allowed good discrimination between habitat types (Wilks’ λ = 0.16), specifically in differentiating clearcuts from surface mines and right-of-ways. Although the three habitat types had several avian species in common, the abundance of 12 species differed substantially among habitat types, and their species abundance patterns allowed for excellent discrimination between these habitat types (Wilks’ λ = 0.08). We conclude that these three early successional habitat types are different with regard to vegetation structure and avian community assemblage. These differences are important for local and landscape-scale conservation planning for both early and late successional avian species.