Guest Speaker - Nancy Ransom - Forest Nesting Birds
Schedule
Tue, 25 Mar, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Osborn MetroPark | Huron, OH
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Forestry and Physiology: How sustainable forestry practices may actually help the survival of forest-nesting birds.Birds are highly vulnerable to predation and loss of body condition during their annual molt. They experience impaired flight ability and greatly increased energetic demand due to shedding of the old feathers that insulated them and the growth of new feathers to take their place. In fact, some migratory birds undergo so intensive a molt of their flight feathers that they become functionally flightless for a period of time (Rimmer). Therefore, forest birds actually may benefit from having access to a habitat close to the mature forest that has dense cover for protection from predators, as well as abundant food, such as invertebrates and fruits. Forest edges can provide this sort of habitat, and so too can tree gaps, both natural and human made, within the forest.
Nancy Ransom is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University who collected bird banding data in conjunction with the National Aviary and the Foundation for Sustainable Forestry for the last four years. These last two years she has collected data towards a master's thesis on how birds molt under varying sustainable forestry treatments. The Foundation for Sustainable Forestry uses a novel forest clearing method called femelschlag, or “gap silvaculture,” which creates a mosaic in the forest with gaps of varying ages.
General data on bird diversity and abundance within these unique gaps were collected by Dr. Steven Latta, Director of Conservation and Field Research at the National Aviary, and Nancy is observing how birds molt their feathers in these gaps.
Early successional habitats provide cover to birds during this very energy demanding process in their annual cycle. In this talk we will explore what sustainable forestry methods are, how birds molt, and what the collection of molt data over the last two years has taught us about the importance of forest gaps to birds during the brief but critical period following nesting and prior to migration.
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Where is it happening?
Osborn MetroPark, Huron, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
