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Lidar Remote Sensing Variables Predict Breeding Habitat Of A Neotropical Migrant Bird, Scott J. Goetz, Daniel Steinberg, Matthew G. G. Betts, Richard T. Holmes
Lidar Remote Sensing Variables Predict Breeding Habitat Of A Neotropical Migrant Bird, Scott J. Goetz, Daniel Steinberg, Matthew G. G. Betts, Richard T. Holmes
Dartmouth Scholarship
A topic of recurring interest in ecological research is the degree to which vegetation structure influences the distribution and abundance of species. Here we test the applicability of remote sensing, particularly novel use of waveform lidar measurements, for quantifying the habitat heterogeneity of a contiguous northern hardwoods forest in the northeastern United States. We apply these results to predict the breeding habitat quality, an indicator of reproductive output of a well-studied Neotropical migrant songbird, the Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica caerulescens). We found that using canopy vertical structure metrics provided unique information for models of habitat quality and spatial patterns of …
Selection Of Foraging And Nesting Sites By Black-Throated Blue Warblers: Their Relative Influence On Habitat Choice, Benjamin B. Steele
Selection Of Foraging And Nesting Sites By Black-Throated Blue Warblers: Their Relative Influence On Habitat Choice, Benjamin B. Steele
Dartmouth Scholarship
To understand why breeding Black-throated Blue Warblers (Dendroica caerulescens) select forests with dense shrubs, I assessed the value of this habitat in supplying opportunities for foraging and nesting. I predicted that these warblers would select shrub foliage for foraging if foraging substrate was important in their selection of habitat and that they would place their nests in areas of dense shrubs if nest-site availability affected habitat choice. To measure foraging and nest-site selection, I compared the proportion of foraging or nests in a particular habitat element to the availability of that element expressed as a proportion of all …
Behavioral Feeding Specialization In Pinaroloxias Inornata, The “Darwin's Finch” Of Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Tracey K. Werner, Thomas W. Sherry
Behavioral Feeding Specialization In Pinaroloxias Inornata, The “Darwin's Finch” Of Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Tracey K. Werner, Thomas W. Sherry
Dartmouth Scholarship
As a population, Cocos Finches exhibit a broad range of feeding behaviors spanning those of several families of birds on the mainland, while individuals feed as specialists year-round. Although this extreme intraspecific variability occurs as predicted in a tropical oceanic island environment, these specializations challenge contemporary ecological theory in that they are not attributable to individual differences in age, sex, gross morphology, or opportunistic exploitation of patchy resources. Instead, they appear to originate and be maintained behaviorally, possibly via observational learning. This phenomenon adds another direction to the evolutionary radiation of the Darwin's Finches and underscores the necessity for detailed …