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1 September 2009 Status and Trends of Birds in an Extensive Western Massachusetts Forest
Bradford G. Blodget, Randy Dettmers, John Scanlon
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Abstract

We report forest bird population trends from 1987–2005 at a 280.7-ha site in Chester, MA. Our study site consisted primarily of mid-successional (70–90 yr old) forest in a landscape of similar, non-fragmented forest. Using point counts at 100 stations, we detected 94 species in early June over all years. Mean numbers of species and detections/yr were 57 and 1104, respectively. Species richness and total detections were stable (P ≤ 0.05). We analyzed trends for the 36 most frequently detected species. Four species exhibited significant increasing trends and 10 significant declining trends; 22 species were stable or exhibited no significant trend (P ≤ 0.05). Whether a species was a resident, short-distance, migrant, or Neotropical migrant did not appear to be a determinative factor for trends. Trends were more readily explained by (I) areal and structural expansion of mature forest conditions and (II) forestry treatments that affected 70 ha (25%) of the study site. We report few changes in species abundances that could not be plausibly explained by intra-site habitat changes and no mysterious or alarming changes in the first 19 years of this study.

Bradford G. Blodget, Randy Dettmers, and John Scanlon "Status and Trends of Birds in an Extensive Western Massachusetts Forest," Northeastern Naturalist 16(3), 423-442, (1 September 2009). https://doi.org/10.1656/045.016.n310
Published: 1 September 2009
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