Homeward bound: canopy cover and species identity influence non-breeding season homing success and speed in forest birds

Kathryn E Sieving,Chelsea A Weitekamp,Jin Bai,Kelly Frye

doi:10.1186/s40657-021-00260-x

Abstract

BackgroundEfficient and safe movement is fundamental for wild birds to thrive in their environments. For arboreal forest animals, especially birds, canopy cover has a large impact on birds’ daily movements and is a crucial component of conservation strategies seeking to retain avian population in disturbed or urban habitats.MethodsWe translocated woodland bird species utilizing different forest strata during two non-breeding seasons in Gainesville, FL, USA. We used linear model and generalized linear model to examine the effects of canopy cover and species identity on homing success and speed.ResultsAmong our study species of Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), and Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), we found that Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice were more likely to return than Northern Cardinals. Among birds that successfully returned, homing speed is significantly affected by forest canopy cover and species identity (titmice had higher homing speed than cardinals). Birds return much faster in landscape with higher canopy cover.ConclusionsThis study presented evidence of species identity’s effect on homing success and speed in common feeder bird species in Southeast US and provided further evidence that bird movements in the suburban land cover are constrained by low canopy cover.

Highlights

Efficient and safe movement is fundamental for wild birds to thrive in their environments
Habitat loss and fragmentation are of central concern for the conservation of North American forest birds, since declines in their populations have been associated with habitat loss and fragmentation (Peterjohn 2003; Valiela and Martinetto 2007; Pimm and Brooks 2013; Hindmarch et al 2017)
Among individuals returned to the capture sites (n = 44), the percentage of canopy cover did influence homing speed; birds translocated in areas with

Summary

Introduction

Efficient and safe movement is fundamental for wild birds to thrive in their environments. For arboreal forest animals, especially birds, canopy cover has a large impact on birds’ daily movements and is a crucial component of conservation strategies seeking to retain avian population in disturbed or urban habitats. Identifying aspects of habitat change that have the greatest effects on survival, reproduction, and movement of forest birds will be informative to conservation efforts (Zollner and Lima 2005). Birds that are specialists are more reluctant than generalists to cross habitat gaps during playback experiments (Sieving et al 1996; Rail et al 1997) and demonstrate longer homing times after translocations due to increased use of detour routes (Gillies and St. Clair 2008). Individual species have varying threshold distances at which they are willing to cross gaps (St. Clair et al 1998) and different perceptual ranges for which they can perceive the fragmented landscape (Lima and Zollner 1996). All of these factors may affect their willingness to, and speed of, travel through fragmented landscapes

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