Bird Communities and Forest Structure in the Sierra Nevada of California

Relationships between forest structure and avian communities have been documented in many northern temperate and tropical studies. This study tests the applicability of conclusions from those studies to New Zealand forest bird communities. For 29 months from September 1982 to February 1985 we monitored the bird community in part of the Ruamahanga Ecological Area, Tararua State Forest Park. We used a modified 5 min bird count to determine the relative abundances of each bird species. The modification consisted of separating the counts into birds near to (<20 m) and far from (>20 m) the observer. The near/far ratio proved useful in assessing the distribution of common bird species but was inadequate for rarer species. Twentynine bird species were seen, 21 of which probably bred within the study area. Eleven forest bird species were seen with sufficient frequency to apply the near/far ratio.Principal component analysis was used as a graphical tool to describe the inter-relationships of bird species distribution with plant species and plant structure. Plant species' composition was a better predictor of bird species' composition than was forest structure. Although the distributions of 10 common bird species were positively correlated with high canopy forest, five of these species were associated with red beech dominated forest and the other five species with podocarp/broadleaf dominated forest. Introduced birds were largely confined to forest margins, suggesting either that the *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Received 20 May 1991; accepted 12 November 1993remaining native birds are successfully excluding introduced birds, or that the forest habitat is unsuitable for the introduced species.

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“…This index varies less with sample size than do the indices of Simpson (1949) or Hill (1973) (Beedy 1981).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Distribution and abundance of forest birds in the Ruamahanga Ecological Area, North Island, New Zealand

Moffat

Minot

1994

New Zealand Journal of Zoology

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“…As many studies have pointed out (e.g., Morrison and Meslow, 1983;Yui and Suzuki, 1987;Nakamura et al, 1992), our results have also suggested that a higher number of bird species should be maintained by retaining broad-leaved trees in coniferous plantations. Beedy (1981) showed that the structure of a forest canopy was a primary factor influencing the size and composition of bird communities during both the nesting and post-nesting period and that the open-canopy forests had more diverse bird communities than the closed-canopy forests probably because the open forests had more developed understories. In contrast, Yui (1976) demonstrated that bird communities were more diverse in closed-canopy forests than in opencanopy forests, but the importance of understories has also been emphasized by other studies (Beedy, 1981;Yui, 1983).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A large number of studies has shown interactions between forest and bird community (MacArthur and MacArthur, 1961;Yui, 1976, 1977, Yui and Suzuki, 1987Beedy, 1981;Bell, 1984;Schwab and Sinclair, 1994). Recently, greater attention has been focused on the effect of planting after intense logging of natural forests on bird communities in various forest types and from various points of view (Smith, 1984(Smith, , 1985 or on other mammal species (Hayes et al, 1995).…”

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confidence: 99%

Differences in Bird Species Diversities between a Natural Mixed Forest and a Coniferous Plantation

Ohno

Ishida

1997

Journal of Forest Research

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Bird species diversity and bird species richness were surveyed in a natural mixed forest (mature forest) and in a coniferous plantation (30-40 years old) monthly from 1990 to 1994. These forests were 20 km apart and had similar weather conditions and soil types. There were larch and cedar plantations, and hardwoods along streams in the coniferous plantation. In the natural mixed forest, 55 bird species were found, whereas 40 species were recorded in the coniferous plantation. The species diversity of bird communities was significantly higher in the natural mixed forest than in the coniferous plantation mixed with hardwood trees. This result indicates that the coniferous plantation mixed with hardwood trees, presumed to be a more simplified environment, is likely to be less inhabitable for many bird species than the natural mixed forest, suggesting a relationship between the diversity of the forest environment and the diversity of the bird community. A higher number of bird species was recorded in the small coniferous forest mixed with hardwood trees compared with those in the coniferous plantation. The mixing of broad-leaved trees in a coniferous plantation was suggested to be effective in increasing number of bird species. These tendencies were recorded all through the year during our study. In snow-covering periods, both the diversity and the bird species richness fell in all study sites every year. Snow cover would have greater effect on bird species diversity in the coniferous plantation than in other forest types probably due to diet shortages caused by the snow cover over the forest floor.

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“…The inclusion of hyperparameters and quadratic terms in the model allowed the shapes of these associations (positive or negative slope vs. unimodal) to vary by species. We expected differences in elevation and canopy cover to reflect variation in habitat and to be associated with differences in bird species composition (Beedy 1981, Siegel and DeSante 2003, Furnas and Callas 2015. All (471) 40% (21) a Averaged for the 200 m buffer surrounding survey sites and random locations.…”

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using occupancy modeling to monitor dates of peak vocal activity for passerines in California

Furnas

McGrann

2018

The Condor

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Bird Communities and Forest Structure in the Sierra Nevada of California

Cited by 47 publications

References 27 publications

Distribution and abundance of forest birds in the Ruamahanga Ecological Area, North Island, New Zealand

Distribution and abundance of forest birds in the Ruamahanga Ecological Area, North Island, New Zealand

Differences in Bird Species Diversities between a Natural Mixed Forest and a Coniferous Plantation

Using occupancy modeling to monitor dates of peak vocal activity for passerines in California

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