Cattle grazing and grassland birds in the northern tallgrass prairie

摘要: With the loss of over 70% North America's grasslands (Samson et al. 2004), grassland birds increasingly rely on habitat that is privately owned and managed for livestock production. Therefore, it critical to understand how grazing influences bird abundance community structure. We evaluated response 4 obligate species intensity, vegetation structure, ecological site description, burning across a landscape including pastures with no recent experiencing intensities similar private production operations. models using binomial N-mixture model implemented in R package unmarked. Overall, 3 included positive relationships intensity top (i.e., grasshopper sparrow [Ammodramus savannarum], bobolink [Dolichonyx oryzivorus], upland sandpiper [Bartramia longicauda]), suggesting range (0–4.57 animal months/ha) did not negatively affect these species. Marbled godwit (Limosa fedoa) abundance, however, was higher greater variability litter depth but directly related intensity. Finally, effect year correlated decreasing precipitation course study had greatest influence composition some separation by Our results suggest cattle can positively annual variation weather patterns at sites regardless management decisions. © 2016 The Wildlife Society.