Quantifying avian habitat use in forests using track-plates

Abstract

I constructed track-plates resembling short pine branches and attached them to pairs of neighboring pine trees distributed over a 1000-ha area in the Colorado Front Range. I checked track-plates after four and eight days between 24-31 August 2000 and scored each for the presence or absence of tracks. Half of all track plates were marked within four days. I found a positive correlation between scores of paired trees, indicating that track-plating accurately reflected the relative abundance of birds among habitat patches. A power analysis showed that to test for a 15% difference in bird visitation among habitats with a power of 0.75 required a sample size of 25 trees.

Citation

Mooney, Kailen A. 2002. Quantifying avian habitat use in forests using track-plates. Journal of Field Ornithology. 73(4): 392-398.