The Lewiss Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) is known to breed in ponderosa pine, cottonwood riparian, aspen, and burned conifer forest types, but is declining in much of its range throughout the U.S. and is listed as a Level II Species of Concern in Montana. In western Montana, Lewiss Woodpeckers commonly breed in riparian bottomlands, but information on characteristics of their preferred nesting habitat within these areas is lacking. I studied nesting habitat use by Lewiss Woodpeckers in two important breeding areas in cottonwood-dominated riparian forest along the Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers in western Montana. I found 55 nests during the summer of 2012, and measured vegetation characteristics around 38 of those nest sites as well as 30 randomly located sites within the same forests. My main objective was to examine nest-tree, local, and landscape habitat characteristics of Lewiss Woodpeckers at nest sites and random sites to determine whether sites used in western Montana river systems were a nonrandom subset of bottomland conditions and whether used conditions were similar to those reported from other parts of their geographic range. Logistic regression models were developed based on used sites and available sites within the study area. Results showed that Lewiss Woodpeckers used larger snags in areas with relatively high percent shrub cover and relatively high snag density per hectare. Snags provide perches to forage from, cavities for nesting, and an open canopy, while the shrub understory supports arthropod prey. From a landscape perspective, Lewiss Woodpeckers nest sites were closer to agricultural fields than were randomly located sites, suggesting adjacent fields were preferred. Information from this study will be disseminated to land managers and private landowners, recommending desired vegetation conditions to benefit this species, including snag retention. To ensure that conditions suitable for Lewiss Woodpecker are maintained in perpetuity will also require management of the river system in its entirety.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-08262013-152249 |
| Date | 18 September 2013 |
| Creators | Fylling, Megan |
| Contributors | Len Broberg, Richard Hutto, Anna Noson |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-08262013-152249/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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