Nesting success of birds in different silvicultural treatments in Southeastern US pine forests

We examined nesting success and levels of nest predation and cowbird parasi tism among five different silvicultural treatments regenerating (3-6 years old), mid-rotation (12-15 years old), and thinned (17-23 years old) pine pl antations, single-tree selection, and late-rotation pine-hardwood stands in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas from 1993 to 1995. We monitored 1674 ne sts. Differences in daily mortality and daily predation rate among two or m ore treatments were found for 4 and 3 of 12 species, respectively. These di fferences were lost following Bonferroni adjustments, but thinned stands ha d higher levels of Predation than single-tree selection stands when predati on levels were averaged across species. Daily predation rates were positive ly correlated with the relative abundance of birds, suggesting that nest pr edators respond to prey availability (i.e., nests) in a density-dependent m anner. The relative abundance of cowbirds differed among treatments, with t he highest densities in regenerating thinned, and single-tree selection sta nds. Field Sparrows (Spizella pusilla) and Yellow-breasted Chats (Icteria v irens) experienced higher levels of parasitism in thinned than regenerating plantations whereas White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus) experienced higher p arasitism in regenerating plantations than in mid-rotation or thinned plant ations. Several shrub-nesting and 1 ground-nesting species had lower nestin g success in thinned and regenerating plantations than has been reported in previously published studies Thus, some seral stages of even-aged manageme nt may provide low quality nesting habitat for several early-successional b ird species. In contrast many species nesting in mid-rotation and single-tr ee selection stands had nesting success similar to or greater than that fou nd in previous studies suggesting that some silvicultural treatments, when embedded in a largely forested landscape may Provide suitable habitat for f orest land birds without affecting their reproductive success.