| habitat edge, land management, and rates of brood parasitism in tallgrass prairie. | bird populations in north america's grasslands have declined sharply in recent decades. these declines are traceable, in large part, to habitat loss, but management of tallgrass prairie also has an impact. an indirect source of decline potentially associated with management is brood parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird (molothrus ater), which has had substantial negative impacts on many passerine hosts. using a novel application of regression trees, we analyzed an extensive five-year set of ne ... | 2006 | 16711055 |
| grassland bird responses to land management in the largest remaining tallgrass prairie. | extensive habitat loss and changing agricultural practices have caused widespread declines in grassland birds throughout north america. the flint hills of kansas and oklahoma--the largest remaining tallgrass prairie--is important for grassland bird conservation despite supporting a major cattle industry. in 2004 and 2005, we assessed the community, population, and demographic responses of grassland birds to the predominant management practices (grazing, burning, and haying) of the region, includ ... | 2009 | 19040653 |
| four new species of aulonastus kethley, 1970 (acari: syringophilidae) from north american passerines. | four new species belonging to aulonastus kethley, 1970 (acari: prostigmata: syringophilidae), which are found inside the quills of body feathers of north american passerines (aves: passeriformes), are described and figured: a. emberizicus n. sp. from ammodramus savanarum (gmelin) (emberizidae) (type-host) in texas, zonotrichia atricapilla (gmelin) (emberizidae) in california and passerculus sandwichensis (gmelin) (emberizidae) in texas; a. euphagus n. sp. from euphagus cyanocephalus (wagler) (ic ... | 2010 | 20437219 |
| exceptionally well preserved late quaternary plant and vertebrate fossils from a blue hole on abaco, the bahamas. | we report quaternary vertebrate and plant fossils from sawmill sink, a "blue hole" (a water-filled sinkhole) on great abaco island, the bahamas. the fossils are well preserved because of deposition in anoxic salt water. vertebrate fossils from peat on the talus cone are radiocarbon-dated from approximately 4,200 to 1,000 cal bp (late holocene). the peat produced skeletons of two extinct species (tortoise chelonoidis undescribed sp. and caracara caracara creightoni) and two extant species no long ... | 2007 | 18077421 |
| impacts of tree rows on grassland birds and potential nest predators: a removal experiment. | globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. in north america, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often greater along wooded edge and grassland transitions, we measured the impacts of removing rows of trees and shrubs that intersected grasslands on potenti ... | 2013 | 23565144 |
| assessing multiregion avian benefits from strategically targeted agricultural buffers. | mounting evidence of wildlife population gains from targeted conservation practices has prompted the need to develop and evaluate practices that are integrated into production agriculture systems and targeted toward specific habitat objectives. however, effectiveness of targeted conservation actions across broader landscapes is poorly understood. we evaluated multiregion, multispecies avian densities on row-crop fields with native grass field margins (i.e., buffers) as part of the first u.s. agr ... | 2014 | 24779636 |
| influence of olfactory and visual cover on nest site selection and nest success for grassland-nesting birds. | habitat selection by animals is influenced by and mitigates the effects of predation and environmental extremes. for birds, nest site selection is crucial to offspring production because nests are exposed to extreme weather and predation pressure. predators that forage using olfaction often dominate nest predator communities; therefore, factors that influence olfactory detection (e.g., airflow and weather variables, including turbulence and moisture) should influence nest site selection and surv ... | 2017 | 28861229 |
| binational climate change vulnerability assessment of migratory birds in the great lakes basins: tools and impediments. | climate change is a global concern, requiring international strategies to reduce emissions, however, climate change vulnerability assessments are often local in scope with assessment areas restricted to jurisdictional boundaries. in our study we explored tools and impediments to understanding and responding to the effects of climate change on vulnerability of migratory birds from a binational perspective. we apply and assess the utility of a climate change vulnerability index on 3 focal species ... | 2017 | 28225817 |
| markov chain estimation of avian seasonal fecundity. | avian seasonal fecundity is of interest from evolutionary, ecological, and conservation perspectives. however, direct estimation of seasonal fecundity is difficult, especially with multi-brooded birds, and models representing the renesting and quitting processes are usually required. to explore the consequences of modeling decisions on inference about avian seasonal fecundity, we generalize previous markov chain (mc) models of avian nest success to formulate two different mc models of avian seas ... | 2009 | 19425426 |
| looking above the prairie: localized and upward acute vision in a native grassland bird. | visual systems of open habitat vertebrates are predicted to have a band of acute vision across the retina (visual streak) and wide visual coverage to gather information along the horizon. we tested whether the eastern meadowlark (sturnella magna) had this visual configuration given that it inhabits open grasslands. contrary to our expectations, the meadowlark retina has a localized spot of acute vision (fovea) and relatively narrow visual coverage. the fovea projects above rather than towards th ... | 2013 | 24292817 |
| pathogenicity of microtetrameres centuri barus, 1966 (nematoda: tetrameridae) in meadowlark. | pathogenicity of adult and third-stage microtetrameres centuri barus, 1966 in meadowlarks (sturnella spp.) is reported for the first time. adults do not encyst; their effects are mainly mechanical. some glandular atrophy of its avian host is detected but no marked inflammatory response is exhibited. juveniles also encyst experimentally in the perivisceral sinus of the grasshopper (alternate host) hemocoel. | 1970 | 19322271 |
| migratory patterns and connectivity of two north american grassland bird species. | effective management and conservation of migratory bird populations require knowledge and incorporation of their movement patterns and space use throughout the annual cycle. to investigate the little-known migratory patterns of two grassland bird species, we deployed 180 light-level geolocators on grasshopper sparrows (ammodramus savannarum) and 29 argos-gps tags on eastern meadowlarks (sturnella magna) at konza prairie, kansas, usa, and six us department of defense (dod) installations distribut ... | 2019 | 30680148 |