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<p>Billions of birds migrate annually between breeding and wintering habitats, following
transient resources. Though a majority of time is spent in breeding and wintering habitats, habitats
used during the migratory periods are especially important for migrating birds. Migration and
stopovers, where birds rest and refuel before continuing a migratory journey, are critical points in
a bird’s annual lifecycle, and are important ecologically, socially, and economically. Populations
of migratory birds are declining on a global scale, however, and proper management is vital to
their persistence in an urbanizing environment. Indiana in the Midwestern United States is an
important area in which to study stopover ecology of migratory birds, as it is a fragmented forest-
urban-agricultural matrix almost entirely managed through private ownership. In this dissertation,
I studied three questions of stopover ecology within the landscape context of the Midwestern
United States, primarily using weather surveillance radar and eBird citizen science data.
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<p><br></p><p>First, I studied spatiotemporal changes over an 11-year period (autumn 2005-2016 and
spring 2006-2017) in densities of nocturnally migrating birds at two radar stations in Indiana. I
found that mean density of migratory birds stopping over in Indiana declined by approximately
6.8% annually, but variability in stopover site use increased over the same period. This is consistent
with other work completed on continental scales, and highlights the need for further conservation
of migratory birds. Second, I studied patterns of stopover site use in Indiana during spring 2016-
2017 and autumn 2015-2016, identifying landscape and local factors associated with those patterns.
I used both traditional land cover characteristics and a novel approach using human socioeconomic
measures to describe these patterns, and found that socioeconomics, particularly the size of a
housing unit, were among the most important predictors of migratory bird density in Indiana. The
results from this study suggest that migratory birds are utilizing urban habitats, which are known
to contain several novel hazards for birds, but that migratory birds will benefit greatly from
interdisciplinary work focusing on urban habitats. Third, I explored a novel method of using
weather surveillance radar and eBird citizen science data in combination with each other, to see if
both measures provided similar estimates of bird abundances during stopover. Though I found no
correlation between the two, I argue that eBird and radar still provide important and
complementary insights for the field of migration ecology. Finally, I provide guidelines for private
landowners in Indiana on management for declining populations of migratory birds.
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| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12180171 |
| Date | 24 April 2020 |
| Creators | Jessica M Outcalt (8752419) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Stopover_ecology_of_migrating_birds_in_Indiana/12180171 |
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