Predicting Occupancy of Wintering Migratory Birds: is Microhabitat Information Necessary?

The condor

Christopher J. W. Mcclure¹ 

关键词: East Gulf Coastal Plain;    habitat;    microhabitat;    migratory birds;    occupancy analysis;    winter ecology;   

DOI  :  10.1525/cond.2012.110139

学科分类：动物科学

来源: Central Ornithology Publication Office

【 摘 要 】

Abstract. Information regarding microhabitat, here defined as small-scale vegetation structure, is often useful in predicting use of habitat by birds. Quantifying microhabitat, however, is expensive and labor intensive compared to assessment of habitat at a larger scale, possibly from remotely sensed imagery. To assess the importance of microhabitat information in constructing predictive models of habitat occupancy, we compared occupancy models built on the basis of macro- and microhabitat together and separately. We based our models on counts of wintering migratory bird species and vegetation surveys within Tuskegee National Forest, Alabama, completed during winter 2009. Models built from macrohabitat data only outperformed models built from microhabitat data only for five of the six species analyzed. However, the best model for every focal species included both macro- and microhabitat covariates. Pine forests—excluding plantation—were the only land-cover classification important to our focal species, an...

【 授权许可】

CC BY