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National-Scale Anaylses of Habitat Associations of Marsh Tits

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National-Scale Anaylses of Habitat Associations of Marsh Tits This article was downloaded by: [Charman, Elisabeth] On: 10 February 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 919184766] Publisher Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37- 41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Bird Study Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t904369352 National-scale analyses of habitat associations of Marsh Tits Poecile palustris and Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus: two species with opposing population trends in Britain Jane Carpenter a; Jennifer Smart b; Arjun Amar b; Andrew Gosler a; Shelley Hinsley c; Elisabeth Charman b a Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford b Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, Bedfordshire c Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire First published on: 11 November 2009 To cite this Article Carpenter, Jane, Smart, Jennifer, Amar, Arjun, Gosler, Andrew, Hinsley, Shelley and Charman, Elisabeth(2010) 'National-scale analyses of habitat associations of Marsh Tits Poecile palustris and Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus: two species with opposing population trends in Britain', Bird Study, 57: 1, 31 — 43, First published on: 11 November 2009 (iFirst) To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00063650903026108 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00063650903026108 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Bird Study (2010) 57, 31–43 National-scale analyses of habitat associations of Marsh Tits Poecile palustris and Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus : two species with opposing population trends in Britain JANE CARPENTER 1* , JENNIFER SMART2 , ARJUN AMAR 2, ANDREW GOSLER 1, SHELLEY HINSLEY3 and ELISABETH CHARMAN2 1 Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road , Oxford , OX1 3PS , 2 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , The Lodge , Sandy , Bedfordshire , SG19 2DL and 3 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology , Monks Wood, Abbots Ripton , Huntingdon , Cambridgeshire , PE28 2LS Capsule Marsh Tits were strongly associated with both the amount and species diversity of woodland understorey; Blue Tits were associated with large trees and deadwood. Aims To gather quantitative information on the habitat requirements of Marsh Tits, in comparison with those of Blue Tits, across a large number of sites in England and Wales, and secondly to evaluate the range of habitat conditions likely to encourage the presence, and increase the abundance of, each species. Methods Counts of birds were made at each of 181 woods across England and Wales, and habitat data were collected from the same locations in each woodland. Marsh Tit and Blue Tit presence and abundance were related to habitat characteristics, interspecific competition and deer impact. Results Shrub cover and species diversity were important for the presence and abundance of Marsh Tits, across their geographical range in Britain. Blue Tits were associated with large trees and deadwood. Conclusion Our results support the hypothesis that changes in woodland management, leading to canopy closure and a decline in the understorey available, could have had an impact on Marsh Tits, and may have led to the observed population decline. These same changes were also consistent with population increase in Blue Tits. Downloaded By: [Charman, Elisabeth] At: 11:35 10 February 2010 Since the 1920s, woodland habitat across Europe has techniques such as coppicing (Amar et al. 2006, Hopkins been changing rapidly (Tucker & Evans 1997). & Kirby 2007), although changing timber markets could Afforestation of open land, along with intensively man- also be relevant (Fuller et al. 2007). aged plantations of conifers or non-native species, have There has been increasing concern about the health of left only fragmented patches of semi-natural forest woodland bird populations in Britain (Fuller et al. 2005, (Tucker & Evans 1997). In Britain, the pattern is similar. Amar et al. 2006, Hewson et al. 2007). National bird Although the forested area increased from 5% at the turn population monitoring schemes have reported declines of the century (Richards 2003, Hopkins & Kirby 2007) in the populations of many woodland bird species over to 12% in 2007, over 60% of this increase was due to the last 40 years (Eaton et al. 2006, Gregory et al. 2002). conifer plantation (Mason 2007). Furthermore, the age The most recent revision of the list of Birds of structure of trees in British woodlands is biased towards Conservation Concern in the UK placed seven species maturity with at least 70% of both conifer and broad- on the Red List, and nine on the Amber List (Gregory leaved forest stands now entering a closed-canopy stage et al. 2002). However, compared with the wealth of (Mason 2007). This change in broadleaved forest is research into reasons for the decline of farmland birds in probably due to the cessation of woodland management Britain (Brickle et al. 2000, Chamberlain et al. 2000, Vickery et al. 2004), there has been limited research into *Correspondence author. Email: [email protected] factors affecting woodland bird populations. © 2010 British Trust for Ornithology 32 J. Carpenter et al. The joint Royal Society for the Protection of Birds However, all of these early studies were focused on only (RSPB) and British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Repeat one or two woodlands in Oxfordshire. Hinsley et al. Woodland Bird Survey (RWBS) was partially designed (2007) provide recent evidence of the continued to address this gap in knowledge, as well as to test importance of the understorey to this species. Carpenter whether population trends in woodland birds, as detected (2008) showed that although niche separation contin- by the Common Bird Census, were valid. It focused first ues between Blue and Marsh Tits to some extent, there on the changes in bird populations in woodland habitats is also considerable overlap in the foraging behaviour across 20 years and second on habitat change within of the two species, both in terms of actual foraging woods and the link between population decline, habitat behaviour, and vertical and horizontal location in the change and current conditions (Amar et al. 2006). Two woodland habitat. Furthermore, some evidence for hundred and fifty two woodland sites from an original competition between the two species was also found. census in the 1980s were revisited in the early 2000s. This raises questions about the possible role of, first, Nine out of 34 bird species showed large (<25%) habitat change, and, secondly, competition, in the spe- population declines, but a further 11 showed a large cies’ decline. British woodland habitat has changed in population increase (Amar et al. 2006, Hewson et al. recent years (Amar et al. 2006, Mason 2007), attributed 2007). There was evidence that changes in woodland to canopy closure (Fuller et al. 2005) and overgrazing by structure resulting from woodland maturation, a reduc- deer (Gill & Fuller 2007). However, Broughton et al. tion in woodland management and, possibly increased (2006) found little difference in understorey cover deer browsing in some areas, could be important factors between areas of a woodland occupied and unoccupied influencing the declines of some species. by Marsh Tits, and instead found evidence of the impor- Basic ecological data for many woodland bird species tance of canopy characteristics. They noted that under- are lacking (Amar et al. 2006), thus, the RWBS dataset storey cover was very homogenous at their site, perhaps was also used to determine the habitat requirements of explaining this result, but the study still highlights the several declining species, in parallel with those of some lack of knowledge of how Marsh Tits’ use of understorey whose populations are increasing, to draw comparisons is influenced by other factors. Secondly, recent evidence and gain insights into possible reasons for these contrast- of a localized effect of competition by Blue Tits ing trends (Smart et al. 2007). Here, we report on the (Carpenter 2008) suggests this also needs further investi- findings for two closely related species; the declining gation. This is particularly pertinent (Perrins 2003) Marsh Tit Poecile palustris and the increasing Blue Tit given the recent increase in the Blue Tit population Cyanistes caeruleus . The Marsh Tit was one of three low- (+33% in the last 25 years, Eaton et al. 2006) in contrast land woodland bird species to be ‘Red Listed’ during the to the Marsh Tits’ decline. last update of the Birds of Conservation Concern, due to Only one published study (Hinsley et al. 2007) has a long-term population decline of over 50% in the last examined habitat requirements of Marsh Tits in Britain 25 years, detected by the national monitoring schemes in more than two woodlands, although only certain Downloaded By: [Charman, Elisabeth] At: 11:35 10 February 2010 (Gregory et al. 2002). This decline was also demon- variables, again concentrated on the understorey, were strated by Perrins (2003) using long-term ringing data included in the large-scale analysis. Thus, analyses of showing that the decline could be as much as 70% since the extensive dataset collected for the RWBS (a total the 1960s.
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