Life Sciences Commons^™

Observations On A 40-Year January Bird Census In Boone County, Nebraska, 1978–2017, Wayne Mollhoff

Zea E-Books Collection

For 40 years Wayne Mollhoff conducted a personal bird census every January. He explains: "After having run several Breeding Bird Survey routes, and participated in several Christmas Bird Counts, I became curious to see what might be found on a winter count under the more tightly controlled parameters of a census, as contrasted with Christmas counts done with variable numbers of observers."

The count was set up similarly to the USGS Breeding Bird Survey routes with 50 stops, one-half mile (800 meters) apart, all birds counted for 3 minutes, with birds counted at one stop not counted again at following …

Spatial Conservation Planning In The Southeastern United States: Alignments And Opportunities, Bradly Stewart Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

Conservation managers and planners need the ‘best available science’ to support robust and defensible decisions, ensuring that public resources are appropriately allocated. Spatial planning products and decision-support tools developed for this purpose should enable partner organizations to achieve focus, coordination, and increased effectiveness in their investments and actions. Whereas conservation partnerships have historically created distinct planning tools, there is increasing interest for improved coordination, communication, and unifying biological datasets to improve the cohesiveness of regional management activities. We sought to inform spatial conservation planning efforts in the southeastern United States through the development of species distribution models for focal avian …

Remembering Paul Johnsgard, Linda R, Brown, Josef Kren

Zea E-Books Collection

Paul A. Johnsgard (1931–2021) was a friend of many, an artist, prolific author, teacher, and humble admirer of all living creatures. It was impossible to find someone at Nebraska Audubon Society or Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union meetings who did not know Paul Johnsgard. His more than 100 published books made him known not just in a community of ornithologists, birdwatchers, and bird lovers in the United States but also abroad. He was a world-renowned ornithologist and naturalist who remained deeply embedded in his local culture and its prairie environment.

We invited about 75 people to write a short memory of Paul. …

Effects Of Climate Change And Landscape-Scale Forest Management On Avian Communities, Abundance, And Nest Success In The Appalachian Mountains, Hannah L. Clipp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Birds are integral components of ecosystems and account for billions of dollars in tangible benefits to humans. As such, recent continental declines of bird species have ecological and economic consequences, providing the impetus for my dissertation research. I identified knowledge gaps and proposed novel questions about how birds in the Appalachian Mountains are influenced by changing environmental conditions due to climate change and forest management. The Appalachian Mountains encompass an important biogeographical region with high conservation value due to its myriad habitats and corresponding bird species diversity. Thus, there is a critical need to evaluate the effects of shifting climate …

Advancing Methods Of Diet Analysis: A Case Study Using Degraded Merlin (Falco Columbarius) Prey Remains, Taylor A. Coon

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Prey remains have long been used as a mechanism to approach diet analyses. As understanding diet is key to comprehending ecosystem dynamics, prey remains identification requires a unique methodological approach to determine diversity within a sample. With the advancement of technology, molecular protocols designed for species-specific identification have improved to incredible accuracy and precision. Yet, the visual identification method has remained a predominant technique within diet studies. With entry-level observers, we matched visual identifications with molecular-based methods to quantify the accuracy of the visual identification method. This study determined what fraction of visually identified prey remains could be correctly identified …

Timing Of Diversification, Dispersal, And Biogeography Of Parrots In The Genus Amazona (Psittaciformes: Psittacidae) Throughout The Caribbean, Visualized In Gis, Christopher Kingwill

Master's Theses

Avian fossil records from across the Caribbean (Greater and Lesser Antilles) demonstrate higher avian diversity prior to extinction events due to climate change at the end of the Pleistocene and human impact across the Caribbean throughout the Holocene. Amazon parrots (Amazona) are a diverse genus of New World parrots found throughout Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. Their phylogeny and evolutionary history, specifically for Caribbean species, has been debated in terms of source areas in Central and South America and the timing of and number of colonization events to different islands that preceded diversification into …

Eavesdropping On Animals: Can Bioacoustics Help Save Species?, Zoe Grueskin

Capstones

Around the world, scientists are using sound to study the natural world in a growing field called bioacoustics. Researchers are eavesdropping on frogs and fish, elephants and earthworms, and many hope what they hear can inform and inspire conservation action around the world. From the field’s auspicious beginning with accidentally-recorded whales, to researchers today listening to locations as diverse as the Arctic seafloor and India’s Western Ghats mountain range, this capstone project explores the potential — and limitations — of conservation bioacoustics. Read the story, see photos and listen to audio pieces featuring three bioacousticians and their field recordings here: …

Drivers And Direct Impacts Of Lean Mass Dynamics On The Stopover Ecology And Migratory Pace Of Nearctic-Neotropical Migrant Songbirds In Spring, Mariamar Gutierrez Ramirez

Doctoral Dissertations

Annual migration in songbirds is one of the most demanding life-history stages. It represents a period of high mortality, yet there is still much unknown about the ecological correlates that influence its successful completion. After long non-stop migratory flights, birds require a stopover period to rest and replenish depleted energy reserves. Birds use fat as the primary fuel to power long-distance flights. However, birds also burn lean tissue, which results in significant reductions in muscle and organ masses. The discovery and quantification of lean mass catabolism represented a paradigm shift in migration ecology because non-fat components were thought to remain …

Nest Records Of Nebraska Birds, Wayne J. Mollhoff

Zea E-Books Collection

Nebraska Ornithologists' Union Occasional Paper Number 9

This publication is an attempt to provide a synopsis of the breeding information accumulated in the past two centuries. As with any compilation like this, other workers would likely come to different conclusions in choosing which records to accept and which to reject. I have tried to state the reasons for my decisions as clearly as possible. Most difficult to categorize are species which are not well documented. Hopefully by laying out the evidence I could find, others will be prompted to do more research, uncover definitive proof, and put more of our …

Investigating The Impact Of Land Use On Avian Diversity And Abundance In Areas Surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda, Sydney Marie Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of wetland-adjacent land use on avian species richness and abundance areas surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda. Four types of land use were investigated: Eucalyptus plantations, wetland-edge agricultural fields, residential areas, and mature secondary forests. A total of 40-morning point counts were conducted for ten days in late November and late December of 2021. One-way ANOVA tests and Tukey’s HSD tests revealed significant differences in mean avian richness and abundance between all sites except residential areas and Nkima Forest. Additionally, Nkima Forest was found to contain the most number of specialist …

Preliminary Checklist Of Avifauna Of Tamanrasset (South Of Algeria) With Two New Records In Algeria, Belkacem Aimene Boulaouad, Ailam Oussama, Telailia Salah, Harzallah Mourad, Ayyach Khaled, Bekkouche Abdelkadir Missoum Mohamed, Soukkou Walid, Boutabia Lamia

Journal of Bioresource Management

Birds constitute a zoological group which is considered to be a good indicator of balance and biological diversity. The aim of this study was to investigate the birds of the region on Tamanresset which is situated in the south of Algeria and has an area of 554.000 km². Direct observations with camera and a pair of binoculars, supported by ornithological surveys carried out by progressive frequently sampling, in each stations of study area, 44 bird species were observed in this region which fall into 12 orders and 24 families. Among these species, 3 new observations recorded for the …

The Effects Of Urbanization On The Avian Gut Microbiome, Mae Berlow

Doctoral Dissertations

The gut microbiome influences and is influenced by the host, and can affect the host organism by contributing to health, development and immunity. Similarly, the host can influence this community; it’s makeup can vary with host species, locality, diet, social stressors, and environmental stressors. Some of these environmental stressors have arisen due to human-induced rapid environmental change, like urbanization. The physiology and behaviors of organisms that are able to persist in urban environments are often different from their non-urban congeners. Nutrition, development, and immunity—all of which are affected by the gut microbiome—are important factors that can determine survival in urban …

The Intersection Of Past And Present, Hannah Welzbacker

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Science often faces a crossroad between the past and present. Ever changing technology allows us to make new discoveries while at the same time, elements from past cultures need preserving. The three stories in this portfolio all highlight the intersection of past and present and how they can coexist. The first story focuses on a technological breakthrough that allows local researchers to better understand nocturnal migrations using acoustic monitoring. The second story explains the controversial Mayan Train project moving through South America and the implications for the economy, environment and culture. The final piece captures how members of the Blackfeet …

Seasonal Plumage Condition Variation And The Thermal Value Of The Feather Coats Of House Sparrows (Passer Domesticus), Jordana Mf Graveley, Margaret Rubega, Kevin R. Burgio

Honors Scholar Theses

Feathers are critical to how birds thermoregulate, and thus their total energy balance. The feather coat insulates birds by trapping air next to the skin and acting as a physical barrier to heat loss. Despite previous work studying thermal balance in birds, relatively few studies have focused on the thermal contribution of the feather coat alone; most studies have focused on physiological and behavioral responses. Moreover, to our knowledge, no studies have directly measured the effect of feather wear through the annual cycle on the thermal performance of the feather coat. To address this, we used a thermal camera to …

Blue Jay Call Profile In Disparate Environments, Daniel A. Gesualdi

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Many species of birds have been observed to develop higher-pitched calls in urban environments; however local Blue Jays are unstudied (Mockford and Marshall, 2009). The urban environment's high noise pollution imposes a significant fitness challenge; then, the urban Jay calls will be different (higher) than rural Jay(Parris and Schneider, 2009). A series of recordings were taken in rural and urban environments; it was clear that there is a significant increase in maximum and minimum kHz in urban jays than rural jays. These results suggest that blue jays alter their calls to accommodate the environmental factors in urban settings similar to …

S Is For Sandhill: A Crane Alphabet, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This is a book of cranes, from A to Z, written and illustrated by the world’s foremost authority on the 15 species of these wonderful and ancient birds. It is a book for all ages, and for all who love and marvel at the beauty, order, and variety of the natural world.

Cranes exhibit complex behavior, pair-bonding, and fascinating social interactions. They migrate huge distances, crossing continents, oceans, and mountains between their nesting and wintering areas. Seven of the world’s 15 crane species are listed as “vulnerable,” three as “endangered,” one as “critically endangered,” and only three as of “least …

Occurrence Of Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) On Birds In Northwestern Lower Michigan, 2011-2019, William C. Scharf, Lisa Aukland, Gary W. Shugart, Sarah A. Hamer

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Abstract

Monitoring tick infestation of wildlife provides baseline tick

occurrence data that may have human or animal health implications. We collected 312 ticks of four species from 5,122 birds of 93 species while monitoring bird migration during 15 fall and spring seasons between 2011 and 2019 in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Twenty-seven of 93 bird species hosted ticks with an overall prevalence (=at least one tick) of 3.6% (185/5,122). Median burden was one tick/per infested bird with a range of 1-16 ticks per infested bird. Tick species collected were primarily Haemaphysalis leporispalustris (Packard) and Ixodes scapularis Say, with …

Several Vegetation Characteristics Affect Reproductive Success Of Grassland Birds At A Restored, Warm-Season Grassland In Central Georgia, Kayla B. Allen

Biology Theses

Grassland birds are experiencing major population declines due to habitat loss and fire suppression throughout North America. Large-scale grassland restoration efforts are ongoing, but there is little data on breeding bird productivity on restored habitats, nor on the impact of specific vegetation characteristics on reproductive output. Since 2005, agriculture fields at Panola Mountain State Park, GA have been undergoing restoration to warm-season grasslands; however, up until now there has been no monitoring of nest success or productivity. The goals of this project are to 1) quantify reproductive success and 2) determine which vegetation characteristics are associated with reproductive success. From …

Friendship At The Feeding Station, Anisha Pokharel

Zea E-Books Collection

A young steppe eagle and his mother fly to Nepal from Mongolia, where Griffy, a Himalayan griffon, chases the hungry Steppe from the feeding station, but Garuda, a white-rumped vulture, intervenes and becomes Steppe's friend. Steppe's mother is angered at first, but learns the lesson that each species has its role to play.

Designed by Breanna Epp with Maeve Lausch

Paul Johnsgard: Comprehensive Vita And Bibliography, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

A current curriculum vitae and comprehensive bibliography for Paul A. Johnsgard, Foundation Regents Professor Emeritus at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Johnsgard has been the author of (at least) 91 books, 140 journal articles or chapters, 100 reviews or popular articles; the subject of 7 profile articles; and the director for 12 Ph.D. dissertations and 12 M.S. theses—all listed here. Dates covered are 1953 through 2020. Dr. Johnsgard is also an illustrator and photographer.

Updated January 2021.

The Effect Of Shade Tree Species On Bird Communities In Central Kenyan Coffee Farms, Deven Kammerichs-Berke

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Shade coffee has been recognized as a well-studied example of a land-sharing management strategy that both creates habitat for tropical birds while also maintaining agricultural yield. Despite the general consensus that shade coffee is more “bird-friendly” than a sun coffee monoculture, little work has been done to investigate the effects of specific shade tree species on bird diversity and their capacity to help deliver ecosystem services. Previous studies in temperate regions have demonstrated that due to shared evolutionary histories, native plant species are better at promoting native arthropod numbers, which in turn support a greater number of birds. This study …

Investigating The Avian Species Composition, Diversity, And Abundance Of Engelhorn Pond, Kiana Rose

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Central Washington University’s Engelhorn Pond contains important habitats for many organisms, particularly migratory birds, and is a valuable resource for students. However, little information is available about the wildlife inhabiting the pond. The pond’s discrete location means that many people are unaware of its existence. In addition, the pond is threatened by a number of anthropogenic sources, including chemical runoff, garbage, and feral cats. By using point counts, a common ornithological survey technique, I recorded the bird species present at the pond during all seasons of the year. I collected data using point counts during 13 visits from June of …

Nest Success In A Grassland Bird Community: Microsite Selection & A Case For Nest Height Manipulation, Matt Kneitel

Masters Theses

Grassland birds are a sensitive community and populations around the country have been declining. They are susceptible to low nest success due to loss of habitat and the small, fragmented patches that remain are often subjected to elevated levels of nest predation. The American goldfinch (Spinus tristis), which uses grasslands for feeding and nesting, is understudied given its abundance, due in part to its late-season nesting habits, and selection of taller woody vegetation as nesting substrate, which is atypical for many grassland nesting birds. American goldfinches were incorporated in this study which included nest height manipulation of goldfinch …

Factors Affecting Nest Success Of Colonial Nesting Waterbirds In Southwest Louisiana, Karis A. Ritenour

LSU Master's Theses

As the coastline of Louisiana shifts with global climate change, subsidence, and accelerated sea level rise, important breeding islands for colonial nesting waterbirds are disappearing. In many recent studies flooding has been a leading cause of nest failure for a variety of species, especially those that nest on the ground. I examined the nest success of four species of colonial nesting waterbirds with various nesting strategies on Rabbit Island in southwestern Louisiana during 2017 and2018 by determining nest and fledging success. I monitored 855 nests, including 457 Brown Pelicans nests with an estimated hatch probability of 70%, 270 Forster’s Terns …

Wyoming Wildlife: A Natural History, Paul Johnsgard, Thomas D. Mangelsen

Zea E-Books Collection

This book surveys Wyoming’s mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian faunas. In addition to introducing the state’s geography, geology, climate, and major ecosystems, it provides 65 biological profiles of 72 mammal species, 195 profiles of 196 birds, 9 profiles of 12 reptiles, and 6 profiles of 9 amphibians. There are also species lists of Wyoming’s 117 mammals, 445 birds, 22 reptiles, and 12 amphibians. Also included are descriptions of nearly 50 national and state properties, including parks, forests, preserves, and other public-access natural areas in Wyoming. The book includes a text of more than 150,000 words, nearly 700 references, a glossary …

Wyoming’S Ucross Ranch: Its Birds, History, And Natural Environment, Jacqueline Lee Canterbury, Paul Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This book profiles 60 of the most abundant, characteristic, and interesting birds that have been regularly reported from the Ucross Ranch and the adjacent Powder River Basin. The 20,000-acre Ucross Ranch lies on the western edge of the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming. Ucross is a textbook example of the prairie grassland/ shrubland habitat type referred to as the sagebrush steppe, a landscape that is an icon of Wyoming’s vast open spaces. We focus especially on those species that occur year-round or are present as breeders during the summer months, and we place emphasis on a unique group of …

Where Birds Chill: An Assessment Of The Habitat Preferences Of Birds Overwintering In Hudson Valley Forests, Elizabeth Claire Axley

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Many avian species overwinter in eastern North America; however, studies on bird populations are rarely undertaken during this critical survival time, and little is known as to their habitat preferences and foraging behavior. In this observational study, we performed a survey of birds overwintering in the Hudson Valley’s temperate, primarily-deciduous forests, assessing avian populations’ habitat preferences through the vegetative structural variables surrounding overwintering birds as they forage. Our results suggest that high canopy cover is critically important to predicting overwintering bird occupancy on a microhabitat scale. Moreover, overwintering birds preferentially occupy forest plots not dominated by sugar maples, in spite …

Relationships Among Biodiversity Dimensions Of Birds In Nebraska, Nadejda Mirochnitchenko

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a multi-dimensional concept that can be decomposed to measure information about taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional variation within communities. Although the dimensions of biodiversity are interrelated, the assumption that measuring one dimension of diversity can inform about patterns in another dimension does not necessarily follow from theory or empirical study. The relationships among biodiversity dimensions is not well understood, nor how differences among dimensions could influence conservation decision making. Using the avian community as a study system, we explored the relationships of breadth metrics from the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions among each other and across …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 94, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Stable Isotopes Reveal Opportunistic Foraging In A Spatiotemporally Heterogeneous Environment: Bird Assemblages In Mangrove Forests, Christina Buelow, April Reside, Ronald Baker, Marcus Sheaves

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Environmental heterogeneity can foster opportunistic foraging by mobile species, resulting in generalized resource and habitat use. Determining species’ food web roles is important to fully understand how ecosystems function, and stable isotopes can provide insight into the foraging ecology of bird assemblages. We investigated flexibility of food choice in mangrove bird assemblages of northeast Australia by determining whether species’ carbon and nitrogen isotopic values corresponded to foraging group classification described in the literature, such as groups of species that are omnivorous or insectivorous. Subsequently, we evaluated foraging group isotopic niche size, overlap, degree of individual specialization, and the probable proportions …