Oak Ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest - American Bird Conservancy

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Table 3. Focal species habitat associations by ecoregion/sub-region for oak habitats in the Pacific Northwest 1 Although each species is only listed for one habitat category, they may be used as focal species for the same habitat condition in other habitat categories if they are also regularly occurring in those categories. 2 Shading indicates the species does not occur or only occurs to a very limited degree as a breeding species in oak habitats in an ecoregion/sub-region, and is not useful as a focal species; X indicates species that are suggested as focal species to be used in planning, implementation, and monitoring because their distribution and density is relatively good throughout the ecoregion/sub-region. X indicates species that could be used as focal species, but their densities are relatively low. If any of the suggested focal species are not present or are only minimally present at a particular site or area, use of other focal species with similar habitat associations may be appropriate. 20 • Oak Bird Guide
There are two ways to use bird focal species in the conservation of oak habitats. First, the specifics of their representative habitat associations (e.g., canopy cover or shrub cover, tree size) can be used in the planning process to set habitat objectives for a site or landscape. Secondly, their occurrence or density can be used as a metric to track positive progress of management or restoration towards the habitat objectives they represent. Although both of these can be done for individual species, the most ecologically sound approach is to use a suite of focal species whose habitat associations capture the range of desired conditions at a site or across a landscape. Density Estimates Bird density estimates (i.e., number of birds per area) can be an important tool in bird conservation. Firstly, density estimates for a habitat type provides the opportunity to calculate an estimate of the population of a species. Secondly, density estimates used in conjunction with other information on population trends, historic population baselines, or desired populations can be used to set population objectives. Through bird monitoring, a density estimate can be readily calculated, which can become the metric used to set the objective or easily converted to a population estimate as the objective. The use of density estimates to calculate population estimates and set population objectives has been done for oak and other habitats in the Puget Lowlands ecoregion. 30 Some examples of ecoregional mean density estimates for oak-associated bird species are provided in Table 4. Greg Homel, Natural Elements Productions Ash-throated Flycatcher Oak Bird Guide • 21
Page 1 and 2: Land Manager’s Guide to Bird Habi
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Oak Ecosystems in
Page 5 and 6: Oak Ecosystems in the Pacific North
Page 7 and 8: Quercus and Aves: American Bird Con
Page 9 and 10: Oak Woodland Open Oak Woodland Open
Page 11 and 12: Owen Deutsch The Rogue Basin and Oa
Page 13 and 14: development and surface area for fo
Page 15 and 16: Tom Grey Oak Bird Species Our list
Page 17 and 18: Lewis’s Woodpecker: Poster Bird f
Page 19: Chipping Sparrow: Tom Grey Using Fo
Page 23 and 24: Density estimates also can be used
Page 25 and 26: Table 6. Projected potential bird s
Page 27 and 28: 23. Altman, B. 2008. Ground-truthin
Page 29: Appendix A. Oak Bird Species Accoun

Oak Ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest - American Bird Conservancy

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