Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills: Year 4 Annual Report January 2005 By: Submitted to: Arvind Panjabi Forest Supervisor Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Black Hills National Forest 14500 Lark Bunting Lane 25041 North Hwy 16 Brighton, CO 80603 Custer, SD 57730 Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills (MBBH): Year 4. Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, 2005 Recommended citation: Panjabi, A. 2005. Monitoring the birds of the Black Hills: Year 4. Annual Report submitted to Black Hills National Forest. Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, Brighton, Colorado. 67 pp. Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills: Year 4. Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, 2005 Table of Contents Executive Summary ..........................................................................1 Introduction ............................................................................................2 The Habitats ..............................................................................................3 Methods ....................................................................................................6 Field Personnel .........................................................................................6 Site Selection ............................................................................................6 Point Transect Protocol ...........................................................................8 Data Analysis ............................................................................................9 Results .......................................................................................................10 Aspen .........................................................................................................12 Burn Area ..................................................................................................13 Late-successional Ponderosa Pine ........................................................15 Mixed-grass Prairie ..................................................................................17 Pine-juniper Shrublands ..........................................................................18 Species Accounts ...............................................................................20 Sharp-tailed Grouse .................................................................................21 Wild Turkey ...............................................................................................22 Sharp-shinned Hawk ................................................................................23 Cooper’s Hawk ..........................................................................................24 Northern Goshawk ...................................................................................25 Broad-winged Hawk .................................................................................26 Prairie Falcon ............................................................................................27 Upland Sandpiper .....................................................................................28 Burrowing Owl ..........................................................................................29 Northern Saw-whet Owl ...........................................................................30 White-throated Swift .................................................................................31 Lewis's Woodpecker ................................................................................32 Red-headed Woodpecker .........................................................................33 Red-naped Sapsucker ..............................................................................34 American Three-toed Woodpecker .........................................................35 Black-backed Woodpecker ......................................................................36 Dusky Flycatcher ......................................................................................37 Cordilleran Flycatcher ..............................................................................38 Plumbeous Vireo ......................................................................................39 Pinyon Jay .................................................................................................40 Pygmy Nuthatch .......................................................................................41 Brown Creeper ..........................................................................................42 Mountain Bluebird ....................................................................................43 Swainson’s Thrush ...................................................................................44 Townsend’s Solitaire ................................................................................45 Virginia's Warbler .....................................................................................46 Black-and-white Warbler ..........................................................................47 i Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills (MBBH): Year 4. Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, 2005 MacGillivray’s Warbler .............................................................................48 Vesper Sparrow ........................................................................................49 Grasshopper Sparrow ..............................................................................50 Dark-eyed Junco .......................................................................................51 Brown-headed Cowbird ...........................................................................52 Discussion and Recommendations .........................................53 Unique values of habitats .......................................................................53 Monitoring post-fire bird communities ..................................................54 Prospects for population monitoring ....................................................55 Acknowledgements ...........................................................................57 Literature Cited .....................................................................................57 Appendix A. List of all bird species observed in the Black Hills from 2001-2004, with management designation and species totals . ...........61 ii Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills (MBBH): Year 4. Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, 2005 Executive Summary Birds can be excellent indicators of environmental quality and change. In addition, they are one of the most highly visible valued components of our native wildlife. Monitoring birds provides data needed not only to effectively manage bird populations, but also to understand the effects of human activities on the ecosystem and to gauge their sustainability. Because bird communities reflect an integration of a broad array of ecosystem conditions, monitoring entire bird communities at the habitat level offers a cost-effective means for monitoring biological integrity at a variety of scales. In 2004, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO), in conjunction with its funding partner, the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF), implemented the fourth year of Monitoring the Birds of the Black Hills (MBBH), as delineated by Panjabi et al. (2001). RMBO has designed this program to provide statistically rigorous long-term trend data for populations of most diurnal, regularly breeding bird species in the Black Hills, including some U.S. Forest Service Region 2 Sensitive Species and BHNF Management Indicator Species (MIS). In the short term, this program provides information needed to effectively manage and conserve bird populations in the Black Hills, including the spatial distribution, abundance, and relationship to important habitat characteristics for each species. This cooperative project supports the BHNF’s efforts to comply with requirements set forth in the National Forest Management Act and other statutes and regulations. It also contributes to RMBO’s broader landscape-scale breeding bird monitoring program, which currently includes 11 states in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains regions. As in 2003, RMBO surveyed 5 of the 10 habitats targeted under the monitoring plan, maintaining a level of effort consistent with funding. RMBO staff conducted 140 point transect surveys (2,036 point counts) in five habitats within the Black Hills (aspen, burn area, late-successional ponderosa pine, mixed-grass prairie, and pine-juniper shrubland). RMBO did not survey four habitats covered in 2002 (ponderosa pine-north, ponderosa pine-south, montane riparian, white spruce) or the foothill riparian habitat that was last surveyed in 2002. New survey sites were added and others were dropped in aspen, late-successional pine, mixed-grass prairie, and pine-juniper shrubland. RMBO staff recorded a total of 111 breeding bird species on point transects in the five habitats, many of which were observed on only a few occasions. The habitat-stratified point transect data provided good results (CV of ≤ 50% in at least one habitat) on 47 bird species, including two BHNF Management Indicator Species (MIS) and two Region 2 Sensitive Species, and fair results (CV of 51-100% in at least one habitat) on two additional species. The 47 species should be effectively monitored under the current program in at least one of the five habitats surveyed this year, although some of these may be better monitored in other habitats not surveyed this year. Four additional species, including one BHNF MIS and one BHNF (proposed)