This study expands an avian community study in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) to include U.S. Forest Service lands adjacent to the Park. GRSM will be used as a control site to examine breeding populations of forest birds in adjacent, managed forests. Together, these studies seek to develop an ecosystem level approach to understanding the conservation needs of breeding birds in the southern Appalachians.A total of 1,376 independent po...
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This study expands an avian community study in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) to include U.S. Forest Service lands adjacent to the Park. GRSM will be used as a control site to examine breeding populations of forest birds in adjacent, managed forests. Together, these studies seek to develop an ecosystem level approach to understanding the conservation needs of breeding birds in the southern Appalachians.A total of 1,376 independent point locations have been censused in 1997-99 combined. Of these, 1,287 points were re-censused. Vegetation data were recorded at each census point, and the location of each point was determined using differentially corrected GPS. Census and vegetation sampling methods were standardized according to protocols established in GRSM (Simons and Shriner 1998). Census data are being analyzed to determine the relative importance of local versus landscape scale habitat features in predicting the spatial distribution of different bird species.To complement census data on breeding bird diversity and abundance, nest productivity data were collected in 1998 and 1999.To better understand the habitat requirements of breeding Neotropical migrant songbirds, a foraging behavior study was initiated in 1999.
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