scholarly journals Characterizing the cultural niches of North American birds

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (22) ◽  
pp. 10868-10873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin G. Schuetz ◽  
Alison Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Bird Feeders ◽  
Migratory Strategy

Efforts to mitigate the current biodiversity crisis require a better understanding of how and why humans value other species. We use Internet query data and citizen science data to characterize public interest in 621 bird species across the United States. We estimate the relative popularity of different birds by quantifying how frequently people use Google to search for species, relative to the rates at which they are encountered in the environment. In intraspecific analyses, we also quantify the degree to which Google searches are limited to, or extend beyond, the places in which people encounter each species. The resulting metrics of popularity and geographic specificity of interest allow us to define aspects of relationships between people and birds within a cultural niche space. We then estimate the influence of species traits and socially constructed labels on niche positions to assess the importance of observations and ideas in shaping public interest in birds. Our analyses show clear effects of migratory strategy, color, degree of association with bird feeders, and, especially, body size on niche position. They also indicate that cultural labels, including “endangered,” “introduced,” and, especially, “team mascot,” are strongly associated with the magnitude and geographic specificity of public interest in birds. Our results provide a framework for exploring complex relationships between humans and other species and enable more informed decision-making across diverse bird conservation strategies and goals.

Influences Des Zones Biogéographiques Sur La Diversité Avienne Des Galeries Forestières Au Bénin, Afrique De l’Ouest

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 410
Author(s):  
Francis Biaou Yabi ◽  
Toussaint Olou Lougbegnon ◽  
Jean Timothée Claude Codjia
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Riparian Forest ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Ecological Distribution ◽  
Climatic Zones ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Suitable Habitats

This study examined the diversity and ecological distribution of riparian bird species across a climatic gradient in Benin. Riparian bird communities were compared among three climatic zones in Benin Republic from December 2012 to November 2015. The diversity and ecological distribution of riparian bird was examined from a census (inventory) of birds in forests galleries across the three climatic zones in Benin by means of a technique of sampling of limited (punctual) type centred on no listening of 20 minutes in a circular plot of 18 m of beam. A total of 140 species richness belonging to 18 orders and 44 families were recorded across climatic zones. The highest (73) species richness were recorded in Guinean zone, followed by Soudanean zone (70) and Soudano – guinean zones, the lowest (68). Similarly, species diversity was highest in Soudanean zone (H’=5.77 bits) and lowest in Soudano – guinean zone (4,28 bits). But we have a significant difference in species diversity between the study climatic zones, but relative abundance of bird are not differed between zones. Further, diverse bird guilds were recorded varying across the climatic gradients indicating the riparian forest conservation importance. Increasing farmland severs more suitable habitats with dire consequences on the survival of disturbance – sensitive bird species. These researches underpin the need for considering integrated bird conservation strategies and are important for planning local ecotourism activities and to protect riparian forest in Benin.

scholarly journals Habitat mapping for bird conservation in North America

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Taulman ◽  
Kimberly G. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Habitat Mapping ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Partners In Flight ◽  
Conservation Plans ◽  
The University ◽  
The U.S

In view of the continuing appropriation and conversion of natural land areas in North America for human uses, there is growing concern about the impacts of changing land use on terrestrial bird species. In order to promote conservation of critical remaining habitats for birds, Partners in Flight (PIF) initiated a project in 1997 in which bird conservation plans were prepared by members in each of 60 ecologically defined physiographical areas throughout the United States. Accurate, nationwide information on the location and extent of vegetative cover types, as well as lands under state and federal management, are critically important elements in the creation of effective bird conservation plans. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) awarded a challenge grant to The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Wings of the Americas Program to assist Partners in Flight in acquiring land cover data to serve as the foundation of the planning effort. Canon U.S.A., Inc. and the American Bird Conservancy also contributed support toward this goal. The Center for Advanced Spatial Technology at the University of Arkansas was contracted to produce the needed land cover maps and associated tabular products. Digital land cover databases created by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, the University of California-Santa Barbara Department of Geography, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics were used in this project. The final spatial products were produced during 1998–1999 and are described in this paper. This effort represents the first nationwide habitat mapping project in the United States aimed at supporting and enhancing conservation of terrestrial bird species.

scholarly journals The use of Passeriformes in the eastern Amazonia of Brazil: culture encourages hunting and profit encourages trade

Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Samantha Silva ◽  
Brenda Braga ◽  
Leandro Brasil ◽  
Pedro Baía-Júnior ◽  
Diva Guimarães
Keyword(s):  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Individual Bird

Abstract This study characterized the ethnoornithological knowledge of passerine bird keepers, known locally as criadores or passarinheiros, who capture, train, breed and sell wild species in the eastern Amazonia of Brazil. The data were collected from 62 bird keepers through informal, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The family Thraupidae was the most captured group, with 23 species used, predominantly of the genus Sporophila. Sporophila angolensis had the highest use value and price. Our findings suggest that conservation strategies should be a priority for Sporophila maximiliani, S. angolenses and Saltator maximus. The Passeriformes are obtained by capturing them from the wild, by captive breeding or in trade. They are trapped and sold locally, in nearby municipalities, and also in more distant locations as far as the border with Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana. On the international market, sale prices can reach USD 5,400 per individual bird. Species with both significant economic value and regional cultural significance are of the greatest importance to the bird keepers. To mitigate the negative effects of this activity, we recommend implementation of environmental education programmes for bird keepers, to improve their capacity to raise awareness about wildlife, and to inform them of the legal processes for bird keeping and for breeding birds in captivity for legal trade. Long-term strategies for bird conservation should also be considered, such as the implementation of ecotourism in protected areas to encourage the practice of birdwatching.

Land ownership patterns associated with declining forest birds: targeting the right policy and management for the right birds

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
BROOKE MASLO ◽  
JULIE L. LOCKWOOD ◽  
KAREN LEU
Keyword(s):  
Bird Species ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Biological Data ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Forest Bird ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Right

SUMMARYFor over a century the foundation of biological conservation has been the development of open space networks either through outright public land acquisition or appropriate management of private lands. Because both approaches come with significant trade-offs, it is critical to understand which species are found across various land ownership types so that policy tools and management actions can efficiently be targeted to do the most good. In this paper, presence-only biological data were used to create species distribution maps for 18 imperilled forest bird species that breed within the deciduous forests of New Jersey (USA). These maps, combined with publicly available, spatially explicit information on land ownership, document who owns the habitat relied on by each of these 18 species. There were significant variations in both species- and guild-specific reliance on public versus private lands, with the latter preferentially supporting nearly twice as many species as the former. Subcategories of land ownership provided support for the role of both state-owned forests and privately-owned agricultural lands in forest bird conservation; however, each landownership type supports a distinct set of species. While explicitly recognizing the need to employ diverse conservation strategies, the approach provides a solid framework for structuring forest conservation planning and policy at regional scales.

Nest cameras do not affect nest survival in a meadow-nesting shorebird

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
VOLKER SALEWSKI ◽  
LUIS SCHMIDT
Keyword(s):  
Nest Survival ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Survival Models ◽  
Northern Germany ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Limosa Limosa ◽  
Study Sites

Summary Identifying the fate of birds’ nests and the causes of breeding failure is often crucial for the development of conservation strategies for threatened species. However, collecting these data by repeatedly visiting nests might itself contribute to nest failure or bias. To solve this dilemma, automatic cameras have increasingly been used as a time-efficient means for nest monitoring. Here, we consider whether the use of cameras itself may influence hatching success of nests of the Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa at two long-term study sites in northern Germany. Annually between 2013 and 2019, cameras were used to monitor godwit nests. In 2014 and 2019, nests were randomly equipped with cameras or not, and nest survival checked independently of the cameras. Nest-survival models indicated that survival probabilities varied between years, sites and with time of the season, but were unaffected by the presence of cameras. Even though predation is the main cause of hatching failure in our study system, we conclude that predators did not learn to associate cameras with food either when the cameras were initially installed or after they had been used for several years. Cameras were thus an effective and non-deleterious tool to collect data for conservation in this case. As other bird species may react differently to cameras at their nests, and as other sets of predators may differ in their ability to associate cameras with food, the effect of cameras on breeding success should be carefully monitored when they are used in a new study system.

scholarly journals Is Hay for the Birds? Investigating Landowner Willingness to Time Hay Harvests for Grassland Bird Conservation

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1030
Author(s):  
Matthew Gruntorad ◽  
Katherine Graham ◽  
Nico Arcilla ◽  
Christopher Chizinski
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Grassland Bird ◽  
The North ◽  
Hunting Activity

Birds in agricultural environments have exhibited steep global population declines in recent decades, and effective conservation strategies targeting their populations are urgently needed. In grasslands used for hay production, breeding birds’ nest success improves substantially if hay harvests are delayed until after mid-July. However, few studies have investigated private hay producers’ willingness to alter their harvesting practices, which is a critical factor for bird conservation where most land is privately owned, such as in the North American Great Plains. We surveyed Nebraska hay producers to examine whether livestock production, wildlife knowledge, and hunting activity affects their willingness to alter haying practices for bird conservation. The majority (60%) of respondents expressed willingness to delay harvesting hay to allow birds time to nest successfully. Livestock producers and those more knowledgeable about wildlife were more willing to delay hay harvests, whereas active hunters were less willing to do so. Our findings suggest that a majority of private producers show a high potential for engaging in grassland bird conservation activities. Landowners’ willingness to participate in bird conservation programs and actions could be further encouraged through extension and education efforts connecting hay producers with information, support, and funding for bird conservation.

scholarly journals Testing the Likeable, Therefore Abundant Hypothesis: Bird Species Likeability by Urban Residents Varies Significantly with Species Traits

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 487
Author(s):  
Lillian Collins ◽  
Grant D. Paton ◽  
Sara A. Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Habitat Availability ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Behavioral Traits

The urbanization of landscapes filters bird communities to favor particular species traits, driven in part by the changes that homeowners make to the amount and quality of habitat in yards. We suggest that an ultimate driver of these proximate mechanisms underlying bird community change with respect to urbanization is the likeability of species traits by urban residents. We hypothesize that bird species likeability, modulated by species traits, influences the degree to which homeowners alter the availability and quality of habitat on their properties and thereby affects species population sizes in urbanized landscapes. We refer to this new hypothesis as the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis. The Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis predicts that (1) bird species likeability varies with species morphological and behavioral traits, (2) homeowners use trait-based likeability as a motivator to modify habitat availability and quality on their properties, and (3) residential habitat availability and quality influences species populations at landscape scales. We tested the first prediction of the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis using a survey of 298 undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who were asked to rank their preferences for 85 forest generalist and edge/open country songbird species grouped according to 10 morphological and behavioral traits. Survey respondents preferred very small, primarily blue or black species that are insectivorous, aerial or bark foragers, residents, and culturally unimportant. On the other hand, respondents disliked large or very large, primarily yellow or orange species that forage on the ground and/or forage by flycatching, are migratory, and are culturally important. If the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis is true, natural resource managers and planners could capitalize on the high likeability of species that are nevertheless negatively affected by urbanization to convince homeowners and residents to actively manage their properties for species conservation.

The consequences of selective logging for Bornean lowland forest birds

1992 ◽  
Vol 335 (1275) ◽  
pp. 443-457 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Forest Birds ◽  
Primary Forest ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Lowland Forest ◽  
Dipterocarp Forest ◽  
Logged Forest ◽  
Lowland Dipterocarp Forest

In lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia, most primary forest bird species were present in areas selectively logged eight years previously. However, certain taxa, notably flycatchers, woodpeckers, trogons and wren-babblers, became comparatively rare. In contrast, nectarivorous and opportunistic frugivorous species were significantly more abundant. Few species appeared to change foraging height, but netting rates suggest that the activity of some species had increased, or that some birds ranged over larger areas after logging. Although there is still much to be learned about the survival of birds in logged forest, large areas of this habitat are important for bird conservation. However, the susceptibility of logged forest to fire, and our present incomplete understanding of bird behaviour and population dynamics in logged forests mean that they should not be considered by conservationists as alternatives to reserves of primary forest.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document