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Abstract
Wildlife habitats connected with forested islands and their back channels (areas where commercial traffic is prohibited) on the Ohio River are valuable to diverse species. However, quantitative data on the importance of these areas to cavity-nesting birds are lacking. We compared cavity-nesting bird use and habitat between back and navigational channel sides of islands in 2000 and 2001. We observed 13 species of cavity-nesting birds. Total cavity-nesting bird abundance (number per 50-m-radius plot) was similar between the back and navigational channel sides, but abundance of downy woodpeckers (
Picoides pubescens L.) was higher on the back than the navigational channel side. The back channel side contained more cavities in living and dead trees combined per plot than the navigational side. Most cavity characteristics (entrance height, width, inside height, and volume) were similar between navigational and back channel sites. Basal area was higher on the back channel than on the navigational channel side. The back channels can support more cavity-nesting birds than the navigational channel side and this study adds to the growing literature base indicating that the more forested and isolated back channel areas are important to a variety of wildlife species.
Parent Publication
Citation
Anderson, James T.; Riesz, Karen A. 2013. Natural cavity characteristics and cavity bird abundance on West Virginia forested islands of the Ohio River. In: Miller, Gary W.; Schuler, Thomas M.; Gottschalk, Kurt W.; Brooks, John R.; Grushecky, Shawn T.; Spong, Ben D.; Rentch, James S., eds. Proceedings, 18th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2012 March 26-28; Morgantown, WV; Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-117. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 460-473.
