Migratory Stopover of Songbirds in the Western Lake Erie Basin
type: CreativeWork
description: Songbirds use multiple stopover locations to rest and refuel for subsequent flights while migrating between breeding and non-breeding areas. Selection of high quality stopover habitat may allow migrants to minimize time and energy spent in migration and maximize fitness. Migrants should therefore attempt to select stopover habitat that affords them suitable safety, shelter, and food. A better understanding of habitat attributes that support high numbers of migrant landbirds during stopover is needed to develop conservation strategies for these species, many of which are in decline. I examined how migrant density during stopover in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) of Ohio was influenced by local- and broad-scale habitat variables, specifically: patch vegetation composition and structure, patch size and isolation, patch distance from the Lake Erie shoreline, patch distance from a river or stream, and wetland cover surrounding a patch. I used a generalized random tessellation stratified (GRTS) approach to select forested study sites within 22 km of the lakeshore along a 70 km stretch of shoreline between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio, USA. Observers conducted over 800 point counts annually from mid-April through late May in 2011 and 2012 at a total of 135 locations. Point count data on Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata), Black-throated Green Warbler (S. virens), and a guild of transient wood warblers (Parulidae) were analyzed using the Dail and Madsen (2011) generalized hierarchical N-mixture model. This is an open-population model that simultaneously estimates parameters that influence the abundance and detection probability of study species. Detection probabilities for transient migrants varied by survey technician, wind speed, and survey time, highlighting the importance of accounting for detectability in bird migration studies. Broad-scale variables such as distance to the lakeshore, patch isolation, and wetland cover were generally better predictors of migrant ab…
abstract: Songbirds use multiple stopover locations to rest and refuel for subsequent flights while migrating between breeding and non-breeding areas. Selection of high quality stopover habitat may allow migrants to minimize time and energy spent in migration and maximize fitness. Migrants should therefore attempt to select stopover habitat that affords them suitable safety, shelter, and food. A better understanding of habitat attributes that support high numbers of migrant landbirds during stopover is needed to develop conservation strategies for these species, many of which are in decline. I examined how migrant density during stopover in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) of Ohio was influenced by local- and broad-scale habitat variables, specifically: patch vegetation composition and structure, patch size and isolation, patch distance from the Lake Erie shoreline, patch distance from a river or stream, and wetland cover surrounding a patch. I used a generalized random tessellation stratified (GRTS) approach to select forested study sites within 22 km of the lakeshore along a 70 km stretch of shoreline between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio, USA. Observers conducted over 800 point counts annually from mid-April through late May in 2011 and 2012 at a total of 135 locations. Point count data on Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata), Black-throated Green Warbler (S. virens), and a guild of transient wood warblers (Parulidae) were analyzed using the Dail and Madsen (2011) generalized hierarchical N-mixture model. This is an open-population model that simultaneously estimates parameters that influence the abundance and detection probability of study species. Detection probabilities for transient migrants varied by survey technician, wind speed, and survey time, highlighting the importance of accounting for detectability in bird migration studies. Broad-scale variables such as distance to the lakeshore, patch isolation, and wetland cover were generally better predictors of migrant ab…
author: Johnson, Patrick Lyon
language: English
keywords: Biology, Conservation, Ecology, Environmental Management, Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Management, Zoology, Avian migration, Stopover, Stopover ecology, Stopover habitat, Western Lake Erie Basin, Migration, Midges
date published: 2013-05-22
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:36:08Z
provider: OhioLINK
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Ohio State University