Streamside Bird Monitoring in Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) - one of the most abundant bird species at Fort Necessity National Battlefield point count stations. Photo © Bill Thompson

A new report from the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network summarizes the first five years (2008 to 2012) of monitoring the streamside bird community at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. During that time period two observers conducted 200 point count surveys and detected 2,316 individual birds at 10 point count stations within the park.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield contains a rich and diverse streamside bird community with a total 71 species detected; 65 of which are target species and presumed to be breeding in the park during summer months. The majority of the 20 most abundant species were forest-associated species including both forest-interior species and forest-generalist species. However, several of the most abundant species were associated with early-successional forests and shrubby fields reflecting the mixed vegetation structure at the park.

Twenty species overall, and seven of the 20 most abundant species, were of conservation importance in the Appalachian Mountains bird conservation region (Figure 1), highlighting the significance of even a relatively small park like Fort Necessity National Battlefield to avian conservation.

It is not uncommon for land managers to be confronted with multiple species of conservation importance, yet which require very different habitats (e.g., early successional forest and shrubby fields versus older, unfragmented forest stands) and the situation is no different for managers of Fort Necessity National Battlefield. The mosaic of habitats and cultural resource values at the park should allow creation of management zones and management actions that potentially benefit multiple species. Information in this report and future analyses should support these decisions.

Trends in abundance over the period of monitoring were assessed for the 65 species in the target population. Of those species, 46 (71%) appear to be stable or increasing and 19 (29%) appear to be declining during the period of monitoring.

Figure 1. Twenty most abundant streamside bird species at Fort Necessity National Battlefield point count stations from 2008–2012. Bars represent the unadjusted mean birds per point (+1SD) across all years of monitoring. *Species of regional conservation importance.

Even though the period of monitoring (5 years) at Fort Necessity National Battlefield is relatively short to assess population trends, the primary message thus far appears to be that most species were stable or increasing in abundance at the park and were species associated with mature deciduous forest—the regional conservation priority.

Despite the lack of significant declines, several species of conservation importance associated with the interior of mature, intact, deciduous forest warrant close attention given that these species have been declining throughout Pennsylvania and the broader Appalachian Mountains region for several decades.

This report provides the first information regarding long-term population trends of breeding birds in Fort Necessity National Battlefield. Continued monitoring will provide new insights and future analyses will explore specific factors linked to population trends. As anthropogenic land use and climate change continue to reshape the Appalachian landscape, park managers will need this information to best allocate effort that aligns with regional conservation planning and other park priorities.

Report Citation:

Marshall, M. R. 2021. Streamside bird monitoring in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network: Fort Necessity National Battlefield 2008–2012. Natural Resource Report NPS/ERMN/NRR—2021/2325. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2288154.

For more information, contact the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network Program Manager, Matt Marshall.