Effects of rural housing growth on forest birds’ habitat

Background/Question/Methods

Rural housing development has expanded greatly in recent decades, which has raised concerns about its ecological consequences. This form of development is often embedded within a matrix of forested habitats and close to natural amenities. Although forest birds are vulnerable to housing development even at low densities, typical of these areas, few studies have examined their response to this increasingly common form of land conversion. Understanding how rural housing development alters forest birds’ habitat over time is crucial given the unprecedented rates of rural housing development in eastern temperate forests of the Mid-Atlantic. The aim of this study was to assess whether forest birds respond, and if so in a nonlinear fashion, to changes in habitat due to housing growth in rural areas. We evaluated habitat composition (amount) and configuration (arrangement) for selected forest birds and forest edge species around North America Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) stops in north-central Virginia and western Maryland between 1986 and 2009. In addition, we assessed whether the response differed according to the spatial extent considered (400 m- and 1 km-radius buffer).

Results/Conclusions

Rural housing development is reducing forest cover and increasing habitat fragmentation around BBS stops. In general, forest birds exhibited threshold responses to both landscape composition and configuration at both spatial extents. The variation in sensitivity to landscape changes due to rural housing development depended on species habitat specificity. Given the wide range of threshold values we found, we suggest focusing conservation planning strategies on retaining forest cover close to the identified thresholds for the most sensitive of selected forest birds which would also aim the protection of other forest birds.