Rocky Mountain Research Station

Title: Habitat use and habitat overlap of riparian birds in three elevational zones

Author: Finch, Deborah M.

Date: 1989

Source: Ecology. 70(4): 866-880.

Description: I examined patterns of variance in habitat use and habitat overlap in 20 breeding bird species found along a riparian vegetational gradient in southeastern Wyoming to test whether habitat use in species differed (1) from availability of random habitat resources, (2) among elevational zones, and (3) between species that inhabited only one zone and species that occupied multiple zones. I sampled habitat features in bird territories and at random stations on 10 8.1-ha study grids distributed over an elevational gradient of 940 m. Principal components analysis was performed on both randomly sampled and territory-centered habitat data to examine the habitat use of each bird species in relation to the random centroid in n-dimensional habitat space. Using this transformed data set, I computed habitat size of each species, defined as degree of specialization in habitat use; species-habitat position, defined as use of common or scarce habitat; habitat overlap among species; and sum of variation in structure of the available habitat.

Keywords: bird species diversity, central Rocky Mountains, elevational zones, foothill woodlands, habitat complexity, habitat overlap, habitat specialization, habitat-niche size, riparian bird communities, southeastern Wyoming, spatial scale, subalpine shrublands

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Citation

Finch, Deborah M.  1989.  Habitat use and habitat overlap of riparian birds in three elevational zones.   Ecology. 70(4): 866-880..