Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2019

AUTHORS. Lana Milbern, Stephen Matthews, Ph.D. – The Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources

ABSTRACT. Urbanization can have profound influences shaping patterns of songbird diversity. For many species urbanization poses considerable challenges yet for in many instances urban areas provide important habitat for songbirds, most notably riparian urban areas. With renewed interest to maintain functioning urban forests, understanding the interactions between songbirds and their urban environments is critical to making informed land management decisions.For our study, we chose to focus on the tree-species preferences for foraging and foraging behaviors of songbirds in restored and unrestored sections of urban riparian forests in Columbus, Ohio USA. The goals of our study are to understand how urban songbirds utilize their floristic environment for foraging, identify foraging-related factors, such as food availability, and identify how forest restoration efforts will affect foraging ecology. To answer these questions, we are conducting spot maps, foraging surveys, vegetation surveys, and arthropod counts at urban and rural sites near Columbus, Ohio from May to August in 2018 and 2019. Preliminary data show that urban songbirds most often forage on Acer negundo and Juglans nigra. During Autumn 2018, invasive plants will be removed and two-year-old saplings will be planted in sections of the urban sites. In the spring of 2019, spot maps and foraging surveys will be conducted at these reforestation plots to observe how urban songbirds utilize these saplings for foraging. We hope that this project will help inform urban restoration work in respect to avian conservation.