Native Bird HabitatKylie Brunette
2025 The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
Assessing Nest Success and Habitat Selection of American Woodcock on Reclaimed Surface Mines in West Virginia
Woodcock populations continue to decline at a rate of about 1% per year, with the loss of early successional habitats identified as a driving factor. Throughout Appalachia, many retired surface mines get reclaimed – a process wherein they are regraded to natural contours and replanted – oftentimes creating early successional habitat. Woodcock use these sites as singing grounds, suggesting that they use these sites for breeding, but no research has yet examined nesting success rates at these sites. This project will investigate differences in nesting success rates and habitat selection between reclaimed mine sites and unmined sites to see if reclaimed mines offer suitable habitat for nesting woodcock or if they are instead acting as ecological sinks.
The Frances M. Peacock Scholarship for Native Bird Habitat
To provide financial aid to study areas in the United States that provide seasonal habitat for threatened or endangered native birds and to tend useful information for land-management decisions.
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