Wind energy development represents significant challenges and opportunities in contemporary wildlife management. Such challenges include the large size and extensive placement of turbines that may represent potential hazards to birds and bats. However, the associated infrastructure required to support an array of turbines—such as roads and transmission lines—represents an even larger potential threat to wildlife than the turbines themselves because such infrastructure can result in extensive habitat fragmentation and can provide avenues for invasion by exotic species. There are numerous conceptual research opportunities that pertain to issues such as identifying the best and worst placement of sites for turbines that will minimize impacts on birds and bats. Unfortunately, to date very little research of this type has appeared in the peer‐reviewed scientific literature; much of it exists in the form of unpublished reports and other forms of gray literature. In this paper, we summarize what is known about the potential impacts of wind farms on wildlife and identify a 3‐part hierarchical approach to use the scientific method to assess these impacts. The Lower Gulf Coast (LGC) of Texas, USA, is a region currently identified as having a potentially negative impact on migratory birds and bats, with respect to wind farm development. This area is also a region of vast importance to wildlife from the standpoint of native diversity, nature tourism, and opportunities for recreational hunting. We thus use some of the emergent issues related to wind farm development in the LGC—such as siting turbines on cropland sites as opposed to on native rangelands—to illustrate the kinds of challenges and opportunities that wildlife managers must face as we balance our demand for sustainable energy with the need to conserve and sustain bird migration routes and corridors, native vertebrates, and the habitats that support them.

Most northern pintails (Anas acuta; hereafter pintails) in the Central Flyway winter within the Gulf Coast and adjacent rice prairies of Texas, USA. However, wintering habitat has declined in this region as a result of decreased rice production and changes in land use. Because pintails exhibit high winter site fidelity, more pintails are likely to rely on adjacent coastal habitats during winter as freshwater habitats along the Texas coast disappear. However, few studies have investigated the diet of pintails in estuarine environments. We estimated the composition and quality of the diet of pintails wintering along the lower Texas coast, and we compared our estimates to those for pintails in freshwater habitats. Proximate composition and true metabolizable energy (TME) were estimated for 4 foods in the diet of 253 pintails collected along the lower Texas coast during October‐February 1997–1998 and 1998–1999. Shoalgrass (Halodule wrightii) rhizomes, wigeongrass (Ruppia maritima) seeds, dwarf surf clams (Mulinia lateralis), marine gastropods, and Gammarus amphipods comprised most of the pintail diet. Pintail diets in coastal habitats contained smaller proportions of protein and fat and a large proportion of ash compared to diets of pintails from freshwater habitats. As a result, the diet of pintails wintering along the lower Texas coast provided about half the TME of diets of pintails wintering in freshwater habitats. Because pintails rely on endogenous reserves acquired during winter and spring migration to support egg production, pintails wintering in Texas may experience greater reductions in recruitment and survival if displaced to coastal habitats.

Abstract.We report on the habitat associations of 21 species of grassland birds overwintering in or migrating through southern Texas, during 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. Ninety percent of our grassland bird observations were made during winter and spring, and only 10% occurred during fall. Grassland species made up a high proportion of the total bird densities in grassland and shrub-grassland habitats, but much lower proportions in the habitats with more woody vegetation. Fewer grassland species were observed in grassland and woodland than in brushland, parkland, and shrub-grassland habitats. Grassland birds generally were found in higher densities in habitats that had woody canopy coverage of < 30%; densities of grassland birds were highest in shrub-grassland habitat and lowest in woodland habitat. Species that are grassland specialists on their breeding grounds tended to be more habitat specific during the nonbreeding season compared to shrub-grassland specialists, which were more general in their nonbreeding-habitat usage. Nonetheless, our data demonstrate that grassland birds occur in a variety of habitats during the nonbreeding season and seem to occupy a broader range of habitats than previously described.

Habitat fragmentation is considered a contributing factor to declining populations of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Some population strongholds exist within large expanses of habitat; however, many regions of the species' range have become fragmented and populations therein have become nearly extirpated. Our objectives were to determine whether combined habitat management and bobwhite translocation could restore bobwhite populations in habitat patches within a fragmented landscape. We translocated 550 bobwhites to 2 sites (≥660 ha; Caldwell and Fayette counties) in the Post Oak Savannah ecoregion of Texas, USA, during 2004–2006. We compared survival, home‐range size, and reproduction between translocated bobwhites in a fragmented landscape and resident bobwhites in contiguous habitat (Brooks County). Pooled over the 3‐year study, translocated bobwhites had lower survival (6 Apr–15 Aug, 2004–2006; Ŝ = 0.35; n = 165 bobwhites) than did resident bobwhites (Ŝ = 0.56; n = 224 bobwhites; P < 0.001). Translocated bobwhites also had larger home ranges (${\bar {x}}$ = 398.1 ha; n = 55 bobwhites) than resident bobwhites (${\bar {x}}$ = 10.9 ha; n = 28 bobwhites; P = 0.003). Moreover, percent of hens nesting (95% CI = 36 ± 16.4%) and nesting rate (95% CI = 1.1 ± 0.2 nests/hen) were lower for translocated bobwhites than for resident bobwhites (79 ± 12.4% and 1.6 ± 0.3 nests/hen, respectively). Our restoration efforts were unsuccessful; relative abundance of bobwhites remained low (≤1.0 covey heard/point) on translocation sites despite intensive translocation efforts. Restoring bobwhite populations in areas with few remaining bobwhites may be beyond the realm of practical management in this fragmented ecoregion. © 2012 The Wildlife Society

The distribution of North American redheads (Aythya americana) during winter is highly concentrated in the Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico. Redheads forage almost exclusively in the lagoon and primarily on shoalgrass (Halodule wrightii) rhizomes; however, they make frequent flights to adjacent coastal ponds to dilute salt loads ingested while foraging. We conducted 63 weekly aerial surveys during October-March 2000-2003 to record use of coastal ponds by redheads. We collected information from used and unused coastal ponds to better understand factors selected by redheads for their dietary fresh water requirements. Coastal ponds used by redheads had greater surface area, percent open water, average depth, and turbidity than unused coastal ponds. Similarly, redheads used coastal ponds with lower salinity and ammonia concentrations than unused ponds. Redheads were observed on coastal ponds >6 km from foraging areas on 95% of surveys during dry conditions in 2000-01, compared to 43% of surveys during moderately wet conditions in 2001-02 and 5% during very wet conditions in 2002-03. Finally, our data suggests that redheads rely on dietary freshwater sources throughout winter and do not reduce visitation to these coastal ponds as winter progresses.

This document provides a set of primer sequences for amplifying and sequencing the entire avian mitochondrial DNA. Most of the primers were originally developed as part of earlier studies (see refs) but many have since been revised or replaced with primers in different locations. All of the primers have been designed to work with most or all birds and most perform very well in this regard.This document is intended as a resource for those interested in using mtDNA for avian population genetics and systematics, whether that work involves sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes or single genes. A second goal is to encourage the use of genes other than cytochrome b, which is a poor choice for studies in which only one mitochondrial gene will be sequenced. If I'm going to sequence only one gene, which one should I choose? ND2! Why not cyt b?All mitochondrial protein genes have similarly high rates of substitution at 3 rd codon positions, but they vary greatly in the rate of amino acid substitution. Therefore, all mt protein genes provide similar information (per base pair sequenced) for very closely related taxa (e.g., individuals within a species) that differ primarily at degenerate 3 rd codon positions. For somewhat more distantly related taxa (including species within a genus, for example, and everything else up to and including comparisons between avian orders), more variable mt genes accumulate more informative variation at 1 st and 2 nd codon positions, whereas 3 rd positions increasingly accumulate multiple substitutions (i.e., homoplasy) in all genes. With cyt b, you get all of the noise and none of the signal! -with other mt genes, you get a little signal along with the noise. Why ND2?In terms of amino acid sequence, ND2 is the 3 rd most variable gene after ATPase 8, which is very short (~165-168 bp) and therefore provides relatively little information, and ND6, which is also relatively short (~519-522 bp) and is generally more difficult to amplify and sequence, given its unusual base composition and location near the control region. In contrast, the complete ND2 gene can be amplified in either one or two pieces with primers that have worked well on essentially all birds (L5216-H6313 for the whole gene; L5216-H5766 and L5758-H6313 for two pieces). We routinely amplify the gene in two pieces and run four sequencing reactions (both strands of each PCR product). What are all those Y's and R's in the primer sequences?Many of the primers listed below have several and as many as six or more "degenerate" positions. What this means is that there are actually different versions of the primer that have

Located at the shortest overland route between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, Mexico's Tehuantepec Isthmus is a globally important migratory corridor for many terrestrial bird species. The Pacific coast of the Isthmus also contains a significant wetland complex that supports large multi-species aggregations of nonbreeding waterbirds during the boreal winter. In recent years, extensive wind energy development has occurred in the plains bordering these wetlands, directly along the migratory flyway. Using recent studies of movement patterns of three marineassociated bird species -reddish egrets Egretta rufescens, brown pelicans Pelecanus occidentalis, and red knots Calidris canutus -from the northern Gulf of Mexico, we assess the use of the isthmus as a migratory corridor. Our data provide evidence that marine birds from the Gulf region regularly overwinter along the Pacific coast of Mexico and use the isthmus as a migratory corridor, creating the potential for interaction with terrestrial wind farms during non-breeding. This study is the first to describe migration by marine-associated bird species between the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coast. These data contribute new information toward ongoing efforts to understand the complex migration patterns of mobile marine species, with the goal of informing integrated conservation efforts for species whose year-round habitat needs cross ecoregional and geopolitical boundaries.

Understanding natal dispersal patterns of animals is critical to development of effective species conservation plans, as it ensures that population management takes place at appropriate scales. The reddish egret Egretta rufescens is a threatened waterbird species lacking documentation on many aspects of its ecology, including movement behaviors at all life stages. We attached satellite transmitters to 25 juvenile reddish egrets on their natal colonies and observed their dispersal patterns and subsequent movements over a period of 115 wk (May 2010-August 2012). Birds exhibited the greatest movement rates in the remainder of the first breeding season (through July 2010, ~10 to 13 wk of age, 11.07 km d −1) and steadily decreased in the post-breeding period (4.87 km d −1) and winter (1.96 km d −1) of their first year. Movements of 1 to 2.5 km d −1 characterized the remainder of the tracking period, suggesting that surviving birds were able to establish local territories. Of the 25 tagged birds, 8 (32%) survived throughout the observation period, based on transmitter failure rates, with losses increasing each winter. The majority of birds remained on the Texas/ Mexico coast of the Gulf of Mexico, indicating that the population is largely resident and therefore vulnerable to coastal habitat alterations in the region. Due to a combination of infrequent long-distance migration, specialized behaviors, and apparent limited gene flow, habitat maintenance should be of primary importance for management of this rare species. This is among the first published studies of heron movement ecology using telemetry, and should be followed by further tracking with developing technologies to characterize high-resolution movements and habitat associations.