Avian Responses to Pine Barrens Prescribed Fire

Inland pine barrens support a rich community of plants and animals uniquely adapted to life in open-canopy, pyrogenic habitats. These environments also support a diverse array of birds, including critical populations of declining shrubland species. Active habitat management using prescribed fire is often necessary to maintain and restore pine barrens ecosystems. This study examines the effects of a prescribed burn on a resident pine barrens bird community at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in East-central New York State. I used data collected during bird mist-netting to compare bird diversity, abundance, and body mass between the burn site and an adjacent site in the year before and after the burn. The post-fire burn site yielded the largest number of bird captures, but it had the lowest index of diversity. Relative abundance was analyzed for 12 species. Of these, four species were significantly more abundant and three species were significantly less abundant in the post-burn site. Differences in bird body mass varied between burned and non-burned treatments, suggesting altered food availability after the burn. Three species were significantly heavier in the post-burn site. No species were significantly less massive in this site. Given the positive responses of many bird species directly following the burn, I conclude that the short-term effects of prescribed fire do not pose a significant threat to resident bird populations in this pine barrens ecosystem. The bird community on this pyrogenic landscape demonstrates remarkable resilience and adaptation to fire disturbance

Data from: Nest site selection and nest survival of Black-backed Woodpeckers after wildfire

Recently burned coniferous forests host wildlife communities that respond to variation in burn severity, post-fire habitat structure, and patch configuration. Habitat selection theory predicts that birds inhabiting these variable post-fire landscapes will select nesting locations that confer an adaptive advantage through increased fitness and reproductive success. Understanding the effect of post-fire habitat on avian nesting ecology can provide valuable information to guide restoration and management after wildfire. The Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) is strongly associated with recently burned forests in the western U.S., where it is used as an indicator species for the effects of post-fire forest management. Between 2011 and 2018, we located and monitored 118 Black-backed Woodpecker nests in burned forests of northern California. We evaluated the influence of habitat and nest characteristics on nest site selection and daily nest survival. Our results demonstrate a pattern of neutral congruence between habitat selection and fitness. Black-backed Woodpeckers showed strong selection for each of the nest habitat variables that we measured: woodpeckers selected moderately-sized trees in areas of high snag density burned at high severity, but also in areas relatively close to low severity or unburned edges. However, only nest initiation date affected nest survival, with decreased survival in late-season nests. Our results suggest that management actions aimed at maintaining breeding habitat for Black-backed Woodpeckers should prioritize retention and creation of pyrodiverse landscapes that include dense stands of snags (>5 snags/100 m2) within ~500 m of forest that burned at low severity or remained unburned

README

Description of data and variables for each .csv fil

Nest_Habitat_Data

Raw data collected at each nest site

Nest_Tree_Selection

Input data for the nest tree selection analysis

Nest_Survival_Data

Input data for the nest survival analysis