Wildlife Conservation Sunflower Plots and Croplands as Fall Habitat for Migratory Birds

Hagy, Heath M., Linz, George M., Bleier, William J., The American Midland Naturalist

ABSTRACT.

Agricultural fields are often overlooked as post-breeding and migratory bird habitat, even though many species use row-crop fields in the northern Great Plains. We monitored bird use, crop and non-crop vegetation characteristics and abundance, and land use around (≤2.4 km) 35 8-ha Wildlife Conservation Sunflower Plots (WCSP) and one commercial sunflower and non-sunflower row-crop field, paired with each WCSP, in fall 2004 and 2005. We excluded four species of blackbirds from our analysis that commonly form large foraging flocks and ubiquitously use agricultural fields. A diverse community of migratory birds used WCSP and commercial sunflower compared to other …

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Publication information: Article title: Wildlife Conservation Sunflower Plots and Croplands as Fall Habitat for Migratory Birds. Contributors: Hagy, Heath M. - Author, Linz, George M. - Author, Bleier, William J. - Author. Journal title: The American Midland Naturalist. Volume: 164. Issue: 1 Publication date: July 2010. Page number: 119+. © 1995 University of Notre Dame, Department of Biological Sciences. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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